Tara Stainforth, Former City Councillor

Forever grateful that my grandmother was able to spend her final days in one of these bedrooms.

"Teresa Dellar spends her days inside Lakeshore General Hospital, working as an oncology social worker in Montreal's West Island.

She sits with families as doctors deliver the news no one wants to hear.

She watches something else, too, something that never stops bothering her.

In the final weeks of life, patients get moved. Not home. Not somewhere familiar.

They get sent downtown, to hospital wards two bus transfers away from everyone they love, to die among strangers in a building that was never built for dying.

Dellar earned her Bachelor's in Social Work from McGill in 1983. She went back for her Master's in 1990.

By the late 1990s she has spent close to 15 years watching this exact failure repeat itself, family after family, and she decides she is done just watching it.

1998. Dellar teams up with Russell Williams, then a member of Quebec's National Assembly for the Kirkland area.

Together they set out to build something that does not exist yet on the island of Montreal: a home built only for dying well.

Not a hospital wing. Not a hallway with a curtain pulled around a bed. An actual residence, with private rooms, where a person's last address is somewhere that looks and feels like home.

The idea is simple. The ex*****on is not.

There is no building. There is no funding. There is only a plan, a handful of believers, and years of fundraising ahead of them before a single patient can walk through the door.

Here's what makes it worse: while Dellar spends years chasing donations and government meetings, the patients she is trying to help keep dying the old way. Every season of fundraising is a season of families still getting the transfer notice, still packing a dying parent into an ambulance headed downtown.

She keeps going anyway.

October 2002. Four years after the idea started, the West Island Palliative Care Residence opens its doors in Kirkland, Quebec. Nine private beds. The first freestanding facility of its kind on the island of Montreal.

Dellar becomes Executive Director in 2001, a year before the doors even open, and stays in that role for the rest of her life.

She tells a visitor exactly what she means the Residence to be. You come in through the front door, she says, and you leave by the front door too. No back exit. No hidden hallway for the dead. The same respect walking out as walking in.

Word spreads. Families who thought their dying relative would spend final weeks alone in a downtown ward start hearing about a house in Kirkland where nine people at a time get to die at home in every way that matters, just not literally their own home.

Dellar earns a Bereavement Facilitator certification in 1995, before the Residence even opens. She adds an Association for Death Education and Counseling certification in 2009. In 2012 she becomes a certified Fellow in Thanatology.

That same year, 2012, the Residence adds 14 more beds on a dedicated floor of a nearby long-term care facility. Total capacity: 23 beds. It becomes the largest freestanding, community-based palliative care residence in the entire country.

For 21 years, Dellar runs it. Colleagues remember her wit as much as her vision, a leader who could find lightness inside a building where every single guest is dying.

By 2019, more than 4,400 people have died inside those walls, surrounded by trained volunteers and staff instead of strangers on a downtown ward.

Then the disease she spent two decades fighting on behalf of others comes for her.

Teresa Dellar dies of cancer on August 19, 2019, at the Royal Victoria Hospital, at 58 years old.

She spent 21 years making sure other people did not die afraid and alone in an unfamiliar place. In the end, she does not get to walk back out the front door of the home she built.

On September 10, 2020, the Residence is officially renamed in her honor. The Teresa Dellar Palliative Care Residence. A capital campaign called Caring and Sharing raises $14,570,000 to expand her vision even further under one roof.

Today the Residence relies on more than 300 trained volunteers who give over 29,000 hours of care every single year, free of charge to every family that walks through that same front door Dellar once described.

None of it started with a building or a grant. It started with one social worker who could not stop thinking about strangers dying alone on a hospital ward two bus transfers from home, and who decided that was something she could actually fix.

Someone who needs to know - the people who quietly refuse to accept "that's just how it is" are the ones who end up changing everything."

PORTES OUVERTES | OPEN HOUSE 🥅

Envie d’essayer la ringuette? Venez découvrir ce sport rapide, amusant et dynamique avec PCRA Power Ringuette!

📅 24 août | 17 h 30 – 19 h
📍 Aréna Bob-Birnie
Apportez vos patins, casque et gants.

Aucune expérience requise

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Come try ringette with PCRA Power Ringuette! Discover a fast, fun and exciting sport and get on the ice with us!

📅 August 24 | 17:30 - 19:00
📍 Bob Birnie Arena
Bring your skates, helmet and gloves.

No experience required

Taking a break from the pool scene to enjoy making little libraries at the Central branch of Pte-Claire Library. We love all the activities offered and registration is ongoing if you find yourself with some time in your schedule!

On fait une petite pause - pas trop loin -de la piscine pour s'amuser à créer des petites bibliothèques à la succursale centrale de la bibliothèque de Pointe-Claire. On adore toutes les activités proposées et les inscriptions sont toujours ouvertes si vous avez un peu de temps libre dans votre emploi du temps !

Today I had the pleasure of joining the City’s Ecological Garden Tour, and what an inspiring morning it was!

A sincere thank you to the Sustainable Development team for organizing this wonderful event, and to the four generous residents who opened their gardens and welcomed a busload of curious visitors into their personal spaces.

Each garden showcased a unique approach to ecological landscaping—from native and Indigenous plants to pollinator-friendly habitats, hummingbird gardens, edible landscapes, and wildlife-friendly design. It was a wonderful reminder that our yards can support biodiversity while also being beautiful, inviting, and functional.

I’m so encouraged to see more and more people moving away from traditional monoculture lawns and embracing diverse ecosystems on their own properties. Every ecological garden, no matter the size, contributes to a healthier environment for our community.

One of the biggest takeaways from today is that ecological gardens are anything but an eyesore. These stunning spaces proved that sustainability and beauty go hand in hand. Thank you again to everyone who made today’s tour such a success!

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Aujourd’hui, j’ai eu le plaisir de participer à la visite des jardins écologiques organisée par la Ville, et quelle belle source d’inspiration!

Un immense merci à l’équipe du développement durable pour l’organisation de cette activité, ainsi qu’aux quatre résidents qui ont généreusement ouvert leur jardin à un autobus rempli de visiteurs curieux.

Chaque jardin présentait une approche unique de l’aménagement écologique : plantes indigènes et indigènes locales, aménagements favorisant les pollinisateurs, jardins accueillants pour les colibris, espaces nourriciers et habitats favorables à la faune. Cette visite nous a rappelé qu’il est tout à fait possible de créer des jardins à la fois magnifiques, accueillants, fonctionnels et bénéfiques pour la biodiversité.

Je suis très heureuse de constater que de plus en plus de citoyens délaissent les pelouses en monoculture pour aménager des écosystèmes diversifiés sur leur propriété. Chaque jardin écologique, peu importe sa taille, contribue à un environnement plus sain pour toute la communauté.

L’une des grandes leçons de cette journée est qu’un jardin écologique est loin d’être un fouillis ou une verrue dans le paysage. Les magnifiques jardins que nous avons visités démontrent avec éloquence que la durabilité et la beauté vont de pair.

Merci encore à toutes les personnes qui ont contribué au succès de cette belle activité!

Semaine de prévention de la noyade : Noyade mortelle et non mortelle 🏊

En moyenne, un enfant est admis chaque jour aux urgences à la suite d’un incident de noyade non mortelle.

Les noyades mortelles coûtent la vie à 85 personnes chaque année au Québec, tandis que les noyades non mortelles touchent un nombre incalculable de personnes et peuvent causer des problèmes de santé à long terme.

Une noyade peut se produire en silence. Gardez toujours un œil sur vos proches lorsqu’ils se trouvent près de l’eau.

Apprenez-en plus sur la campagne nationale de sensibilisation de la Société de sauvetage (lien dans les commentaires).
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Drowning Prevention Week: Fatal and Non-Fatal Drowning 🏊

On average, one child is admitted to the emergency room every day as a result of a non-fatal drowning incident.

Deadly drownings take the lives of 85 people in Quebec each year, while non-fatal drownings affect countless more and can lead to long-term health issues.

Drowning can be silent. Always keep an eye on your loved ones around water.

Learn more about the Lifesaving Society’s national awareness campaign (link in the comments).

Once again we apologize for the inconvenience of our closure, but we will be reopening today

FYI - PVI

Fermeture temporaire de la piscine Cedar Park Heights 🏊

La piscine Cedar Park Heights est fermée temporairement en raison d’un bris mécanique. La Ville travaille avec l’Association afin d’en permettre la réouverture le plus rapidement possible.

Des solutions sont en cours pour les programmes et les bains libres pendant la fermeture. Les membres recevront les détails directement de l’Association.

Pour plus d’information, consultez le lien dans les commentaires.
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Temporary closure of the Cedar Park Heights Pool 🏊

The Cedar Park Heights Pool is temporarily closed due to a mechanical issue. The City is working with the Association to enable its reopening as quickly as possible.

Solutions are being developed for programs and recreational swim periods during the closure. Members will receive details directly from the Association.

For more information, please see the link in the comments.

Monarch gold! Superaliment pour les papillons monarques!

Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)