Honouring Our Grief: A Virtual Memorial and Gathering of Healing and Hope
All members of the St. Joe’s community – including staff, physicians, learners, volunteers, patients and families – are invited to watch the Honouring Our Grief video on Wednesday, July 14 at 2:00 p.m.
St. Joe’s Spiritual Care Department created this virtual event in collaboration with others as a way to acknowledge and give voice to the grief and loss felt by our entire community.
“As the COVID-19 pandemic lengthened, the idea grew of a gathering that would honour our collective grief, a gathering of remembrance and hope where each one of us belongs,” said Daryl Meijer, a Spiritual Care Resident at St. Joe’s.
“Our hope is that everyone will find this virtual space a safe place to name your losses, whatever and whoever they may be, and find light and hope for your path ahead.”
The virtual service includes remarks from patients, physicians, spiritual care residents and volunteers, traditional healing coordinators and leadership. It also features a number of readings and musical reflections.
While it’s important to acknowledge that the pandemic has not ended, this video is meant to honour our losses and support us as we continue to move through the pandemic with hope. Our community continues to look to us for our expertise and compassionate care while responding to the pandemic, planning for recovery, and tackling new challenges.
According to Melissa Farrell, now is the right time for St. Joe’s to host this virtual ceremony because before we can recover, we first need to take a moment to grieve our losses and recognize what we have gone through.
“While this time of COVID has denied access to our preferred rituals of grief, we offer this moment as our opportunity to collectively grieve, and to create community through ceremony,” said Melissa, President of St. Joe’s.
This sense of community ceremony is important for Claudia Collins, a Spiritual Care Resident at St. Joe’s and a chaplain at St. Joseph’s Villa.
“We come together to remind ourselves that we are not alone. Here in this virtual space, our hearts are connected through our common needs, through our values and through our experiences. It takes courage to name our losses and honour our loved ones. It is this courage that helps us move forward into the future without forgetting the past,” said Claudia.
For Delio Delgado, a St. Joe’s patient who survived COVID-19, these words of courage ring true. In the ceremony, he lights a candle for all of the patients and families who lost their lives during the pandemic.
“I was very close to losing my life to this disease, but there are amazing people here helping with this. Great nurses, great doctors, great care. We will survive this, we will get through this.”
The role that St. Joe’s healthcare workers played throughout the pandemic will never be forgotten.
“As a hospital that holds tightly to its mission of compassionate care, and values of dignity and respect, our healthcare workers have lived that mission many times over, sometimes by sitting vigil at bedside when families were unable to,” said Melissa.
The video will be released on St. Joe’s YouTube channel on Wednesday, July 14 at 2:00 p.m. After the release it will be available to watch anytime on YouTube.
Commemorative plaques will be installed in a select outdoor location at each campus in the coming weeks. These plaques will honour our journey together through the pandemic, the compassionate care we provided to our patients, and the light we have been for one another.