Knowing what hospice care meant to her dying friend during the last month of her life, Jennette Scott has always thought highly of the Prince George Hospice Palliative Care Society and the work they do to bring comfort to guests and their families.
Scott knew she’d found a treasure in the Hospice Resale Shop in Tabor Plaza when she picked up a queen-sized quilt that had a sticker price of $18. The store clerk gave her a seniors discount that reduced the price to just $15.
She knows it was worth a lot more than that, knowing it probably took dozens of hours to make it. Somebody told her a similar-sized quilt sold for $700.
So Scott came up with an idea to use it as a raffle item to benefit the hospice society.
In January she started selling raffle tickets for a toonie each in the River Bend Manor seniors lodge where she lives and has since collected $833.
“I know what the value of quilts is, you pay a lot for them, and when I saw that, I really don’t need it and maybe we could do something with it as a fundraiser,” said Scott.
“It just took off. People are just do grateful. A lot of people have lost family members and the staff at the hospice house helped them through that.”
She’s hoping that total will climb over a thousand dollars before the Valentine’s Day draw date on Feb. 14.
Her friend Cathy who died in hospice care was going through cancer treatments and one day she offered to take Scott out to lunch and on her way into the restaurant she slipped on a patch of ice and the impact knocked the wig she off her head.
“She said, ‘Jennette, my biggest fear was that somebody would see me with my bald head,’” said Scott. “I kissed the top of her head and said, ‘your head is beautiful.
“Her daughter wanted me to share that story at her memorial.”
Scott is a breast cancer survivor and is familiar with the service provided by the hospice and the BC Cancer Centre for the North. She keeps a sign up in her house that reads: “I think I’ll just be happy today.”
“I live by that because I had breast cancer nine years ago and I just know the people not only at the cancer clinic but at hospice are amazing,” Scott said.
