One hundred years of the Civic. One hundred moments that made it.

I was in a terrible car wreck in 1995 and broke my back….I was brought to the Civic and repaired and thankfully didn’t have any serious lasting injury or paralysis…I forget the doctor’s name but he was reportedly one of the best surgeons in that field so I was was extremely lucky he was available.

In September 1967 I moved into the nurses residence of the Ottawa Civic Hospital as my home for the next two years while I studied to be a registered nurse. Our training was a strict regime under the guidance of Miss Milligan and her teaching staff, all who taught us the knowledge and gave us the guidance to become a good nurse. We moved out of residence for our third year of training, many classmates sharing apartments, some of the Ottawa girls moving home, and I was able to get married as they had changed the rules for married students just that summer of 1969, so my husband and I lived in a small apartment near the hospital. One of the proudest moments of my life was walking down the front steps of the Ottawa Civic hospital September 1070, carrying a red rose as we headed off to our graduation ceremony. That moment will always be something I cherish, as we worked hard to become the best nurse we could, and that is all attributed to the staff who took us under their wings and made us become a proud member of one of the most honourable professions.

I am the sister of Candis Stewart (1st kidney transplant at Civic). I was an X-ray tech. Trained at the Civic, Class of ’73, with 33 yr career working at the Civic and Heart Inst. Gave birth to 2 daughters at Civic. My two girls volunteered at Civic as candy stripers. One daughter has a working career presently at the hospital. The Civic Hospital holds a special place in my heart for all of those past memories!

When I was working at the Civic for 42 years, I heard from some nursing friends that the story goes that there was a ghost in the Nurses Residence (now Parkdale Clinic). I advised them that it was likely following the death of my cousin who was a nursing student in November, 1960 at the Civic. After working a night shift & taking a bath before going home for the weekend, she took an epileptic seizure and drowned in the bathtub. The epilepsy was probably the result of a fall from a swing in public school when she fell from a swing and struck her head on a tree root.

My mother had 10 children. 9 of them were delivered at the Civic .

I remember when Princess Diana came to visit in 1991 she was so graceful and very friendly. I also remember when we had two big nurseries for viewing and all the babies stayed there for most of the time while the moms would rest. The old maternity ward which has been converted to the MFM unit and ultrasound. Our nursing station has a staff lounge with ashtrays because you were allowed to smoke there on your breaks. I remember sitting on the big front steps on our breaks and lunches and then walked inside the hospital where they had a little convenience store that we could buy candy and licorice. We also had the stop gap which was a mini cafeteria where main admitting is now located that sold the most amazing fresh homemade pie slices.

My Grandmother worked at the Civic Campus from 1973-1993 as a Dietary Aid, serving food to patients on various floors in the hospital. She was very well liked by her colleagues as well as by the patients. My Mother also worked at the Civic Campus from 1977-1981 in the Lab Medicine Building as a Computer Operator. It was a very new position and she was one of the first Computer Operators hired at that time. The Civic Campus was one of the first in Ottawa to go online in the Lab Medicine Department. My Mother recalls the job being very challenging but she liked it a lot! I have been working at the Civic Campus since 2007 as a Registered Nurse. I think it’s so great that 3 generations in my family have worked at this wonderful Campus!

1990: A freak accident helped to launch my 26 year (and counting), career at the Civic/TOH. I was spending a lot of time visiting my wife who had slipped and fell on the dance floor and had to undergo surgery to repair a shattered elbow. I fell in love with the building and it’s many caring staff. Unfortunately, my wife and I soon split up and I decided to go back to school for a new career. I became a social worker and after graduating in 1998 with an MSW, started working full time at the Civic Hospital. I credit my early time here with helping me re-build my life after a difficult time. I don’t lose sight of that experience when I’m listening to my clients that I see in a counselling practice I now have here at the Civic Campus of TOH.

My mother used to work at the Civic Hospital (for 39 years) as a registered nurse, she also gave birth to me there. I am now also a registered nurse at the Civic Hospital, and I gave birth twice there as well. The nurse that delivered me was also working the day I had my first born, it was a fun moment to share with her and my mom. It’s almost like a second home for me at this point.

On Graduation day June 7th, our 1961 OCH Nursing class walked down the front steps of the Civic Hospital, each of us carrying a red rose. This was very special and symbolic as our class was not allowed to use the front door or walk down the steps until our Graduation Day.

My daughter, Susan, was born at the Civic Hospital 50 years ago. We had emigrated from Ireland 18 months before and brought two children with us. My first two births were hard and not good memories, but when I went in, in labour, to the Civic, the experience was totally different. The nurses were wonderful and I’ll never forget how kind and gentle they were. I have had a few surgeries in the Civic myself, with good results and great care. Thanks for the memories!

I worked at the Civic Hospital for 35 years! Doctors, nurses, technicians, social workers, support staff — all work tirelessly to make the hospital the best it can be. I was honoured to work and care for the patients at the Civic Campus. Continued success in the coming years! God Bless.

My son was born here.

I graduated from the Medical Laboratory Technology programme in 1963, the 2nd class of the training programme. One teacher and 6 students in a room just down the hall from the morgue. This was before there was an Eastern Ontario Institute of Technology (EOIT) which later became Algonquin College. I was employed in the Biochemistry lab from 1963 until 2005. First working area was in the front part of the hospital, beside Admitting, where Emergency is now and in the spring, with the windows open, one could appreciate (?) the farm fertilizer odors from the Central Experimental Farm, across the road. In the 1970s we moved to the “temporary” brown metal building which is still in use today. It was a time of moving from almost 100% manual tests to large volume, multi-test, robotic, automated analysers. In 1968 my first born son was delivered at the Civic and in 2000, his daughter was also born there.

Trivia: the civic has / had a mascot!

1989: Mrs. Ida Davis coordinator of employee suggestion program notified me that my suggestion of having a mascot was accepted. I received $50. I suggested a lion. I can’t find my letter but I am sure the hospital news would have a record. We were the first of many to follow having a lion e.g. the Senators hockey team. Strength, fearlessness, leadership, loyalty to the pack. All noble traits.

Had a quad bypass in 1998. Yesterday, my cardiologist checked me out and said my heart is in perfect condition.

I would like to share my memories of my gastric bypass. They are a wonderful team you got there and wonderful personnel. Nurses, doctors, and all the team — thank you. Now I’m at my 7 years and I will never regret anything. I lost 136 pounds, and in 7 years gained only 13 pounds. Thank you guys, you saved my life…

My greatest moment at the Civic Hospital was in April 1974. My first daughter was born. And she was named after my grandmother.

I was born at the civic hospital in 1989, and was delivered by Dr. George Tawagi. And this year, I’ll be joining the department of Ob/Gyn at the Civic campus, where Dr. Tawagi is still working!

I was born at the Civic, did most of my placements to become a registered nurse there, have worked there for 34 years, had my babies there and my husband (as a joke) says I’m going to die there! 🤣

So exciting to have the 100th birthday celebration Nov 27, ’24! Looking forward to the next new modern Civic!!

The Civic – A Family Affair

My grandmother, Jessie LaPage, was a Scottish war bride with a babe in arms when she came to Canada. In 1960, with six daughters and an adopted son to feed, her husband had an accident that left him disabled. This began Jessie’s 25+ years spent at the Civic Hospital. Jessie was a housekeeper in the Caseroom, and if her regiment around cooking and cleaning at home were any indication, I’m sure the Caseroom was left gleaming in her wake. Grandma was always proud to say that she worked at The Civic, even long after her retirement in 1987.

Three of Jessie’s six daughters also took jobs at The Civic, in Admitting. Two sisters only stayed a short while, comparatively, but my aunt Linda (Corcoran) continued on in Admitting for a couple of years before moving on to run a tight ship in Surgical Day Care Admitting until she retired in 2002 with 30 years of service. She is a great story teller, and I remember many funny stories she told about her time with doctors, patients and coworkers.

Then there’s me. I’m the third generation of proud Civic Hospital employees. While I worked as a ‘candy striper’ many moons ago at the age of 12 (for long enough to know that my heart was too fragile for what our nurses experience) my current career path began with IT HelpDesk in 1999, just before the big Y2K. While Y2K didn’t amount to much, my time here has. I’ve had the pleasure of working in a few different front-line departments over the past 25 years, but my current role is as a Data Analyst in Facilities Management, and I couldn’t possibly love it more. I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with hundreds and hundreds of amazing staff, and am blessed to carry on our family heritage of being a proud member of The Civic (now TOH) team. For three generations, our family has been so profoundly affected by The Civic Hospital, and it’s an honour.

I’ve attached a picture of my ever brave and resilient grandmother Jessie LaPage and her family, including my aunt Linda standing directly above her.

When I moved to Ottawa in 2021 and I saw the civic hospital for the first time while i was travelling on a bus, I never knew that the Civic Hospital was one of the renowned hospital which had 100 years of service in the health care sector. Being a nurse who migrated from an Asian country, like everyone I really wanted to join the Civic Hospital somehow and provide my care to the people in need.

When the right moment came in 2022 through my friend, I have got the excellent opportunity to be a part of one of the best and oldest hospital in Ottawa, which has 100 years of service in health care. Also, I had the privilege that I had worked in Heart institute, General and now in Civic within this short period.

I had both of my sons here, great experience. Thank you to Dr. Moore’s and Dr. Millar’s team for making becoming a mom a non stressful event.

The Civic has been a big part of my family’s life since 1967. My mom immigrated to Canada from the Philippines after being hired as a nurse on the Female Orthopedics floor. She lived in the nursing residence on the hospital campus, which is now the Parkdale Clinic. She transitioned to work in the Caseroom and then eventually to the Special Care Nursery, where she worked for the next 25 years until she retired. I remember attending the official opening of the Rich Little Special Care Nursery as a little girl.

There have been 3 SCNs/renovations at the Civic in my lifetime.

My dad followed my mom to Canada and the Civic. He worked in the biochemistry lab for 32 years, eventually earning the title of Charge Technologist. I visited the lab frequently as a little girl, my mom dropping off my brother and I to my dad at the end of his work day before she started her evening shift. The lab underwent renovation and the parking garage now stands near where the original lab used to be.

My brother and I were born at the Civic. His first job was as Nursing Orderly and a few years later he became a Patient Care Assistant, until he decided to go to nursing school. He is now a RN in the ICU and his wife worked in the SCN, years after my mother retired from there.

I gave birth to both of my girls at the Civic and my mother and brother were working the night my eldest decided to arrive early. My baby girl was admitted to the SCN and was given special attention by her grandmother and so many of the nurses and doctors that I had met growing up and through my own career as a nurse.

I was a candy-striper at the Civic back in high school. I loved being assigned to staff the ice cream store….not really hard to imagine why! I remember the renovation of the main level concourse and the cafeteria, where I loved to get french fries and jello with whipped cream on top. While I have never been employed at the Civic, I am currently a nurse in the NICU at the General, following in the neonatal footsteps of my mom.

I spent my first Christmas as a ‘patient’ in the nursery following my birth on December 22, 1942

My Mother, a Civic grad, class of 1934, spent 5 years working in the OR after her graduation was a patient as well. My Mom was alone that Christmas as my Dad was overseas as WW 11 was happening. Mom’s fellow nursing friends took great care of her.

I am also a Civic grad, class of 1963.

I worked there for a year following my graduation before marrying and moving away from Ottawa.

The Civic has always been near and dear to my heart.

I’m a proud graduate of the Civic school of nursing class of 1971.

We wore black stockings and a pin stripped uniform for the 1st 2 years of training. Only in our 3rd year were we allowed to wear the white uniform. There were no male nurses back then and the women were not allowed to get married.

We lived and worked at the hospital for 3yrs and probably received the best training anywhere in the province.

Thank you to the Ottawa Civic Hospital.

I was born at the Civic Hospital in 1944. I was born with a club foot and had to wear a cast and then a brace. When I was six years old I had my tonsils removed. At sixteen I had my appendix removed as well as a cyst on my ovary. At 21, I was in a car accident and spent Christmas in the hospital. At 24, I had cysts on my ovaries again and had one ovary removed and half of the other.

My other surgeries were in the Queensway Carleton Hospital and the General. I remember in the early days the student nurses always had time for a chat and a back rub. Everything was very clean and the hospital had an odour of disinfectant. The bedding was changed every day.

My mother worked at the Civic serving the meal trays and the food was made in the hospital kitchen. I always liked the hospital food 🥘. I don’t know what would have happened to me if the hospital was not there.

Looking forward to seeing the new hospital. Best of luck.

The tulip festival has personal meaning for my family: my mother, Dorothy King, was part of the team that delivered Princess Margriet of The Netherlands at the Ottawa Civic Hospital in 1943.

This was a remarkable honour for Dorothy, who hadn’t quite completed her training yet, but she was thrilled to be asked and forever grateful to Dr. John Puddicombe for including her.

Her hometown paper, the North Bay Nugget, reported that she was introduced to the proud father, Prince Bernhard, after the birth. Dorothy recalled that she made up a bed for him, then realized, to her horror, that she had put a regulation rubber sheet on the mattress.

The following year, Dorothy, by then an operating room nurse, met a very young intern, Doug McKercher. As he told the story, she smacked his hand with a clamp during an operation because he was fumbling with sterile instruments on her tray. It was the start of a beautiful romance.

After the war and his specialist training, Doug returned to the Civic and became one of the city’s leading ear, nose and throat doctors. Dorothy quit nursing to raise their four children, but in so many ways — including the fact we were all born there — the Civic was central to all our lives.

My first day of joining at work.
My first job in canada
Thank you TOH
Thank you Civic Campus

Was a hoot to see all the boyfriends drop off their dates on Ruskin just before curfew back then..!

I was born at the Civic, my two children were born at the Civic, my father passed away at the Civic and my mother worked at the Civic.

Three generations born at the Civic hospital. Myself, my daughters and my grandchildren. 1957-2023.

As an Ottawa Civic Hospital graduate nurse (1966 class), and now retired public health nurse, come writer, I published a novel last year whose principal character becomes a patient at the new Civic Hospital in 1925, after her family move to Ottawa from the country. I tried to capture what her actual hospital stay would be like as a patient on Five West, where – as a student nurse – I have memories of having worked there in 1965.

The novel is called Strong Sweet Tea, and describes the journey of my character / patient from doctor’s referral, through admitting, to elevator service to the fifth floor, student nurse admission on the ward and the pre-op nursing procedures performed, etc., as well as the overall wonderful care provided by everyone, including physician, OR / Recovery Room staff, ward staff and the elevator operator. Each played a genuine role for her and especially for her Mother and principal caregiver, as they dealt with the reality of a terminal diagnosis. But one of tens of thousands of stories the hospital would have witnessed over its 100 years of service to our community!

44 years ago my mother who had immigrated to Canada from India gave birth to me at the Civic; 44 years later I am proud to say that I am a speech pathologist who has been employed with The Ottawa Hospital for over 10 years and presently working at the Civic with the neurology service helping patients who have experienced a stroke. Whenever a patient and/or family member asks where I am from I really enjoy sharing my full circle moment.

I graduated from the Civic Hospital School of Nursing in 1971 from a 3 year program. There was always an initiation the first 2 weeks of school where the older students would make the newbies do all kinds of silly things like dancing in the middle of Carling Ave or dressing up downtown. This song was one of the first that I learned that week. “I’m from OCH, Oh pity me, there’s not a damn man in this nunnery, And when its 12 o’clock, they lock the doors, I don’t know why the hell we ever came her for”! There is more! We lived in residence and were allowed weekend passes to go home. We had to be in by 10pm on weeknights and 12 on weekends, I believe. The house mother was always there to monitor us at the desk near the front door. I remember someone distracting her so we could sneak when we were late. We wore the traditional pink dress with OCH printed all over it with starched white aprons with a separate starched bib and starched nurses cap. Black shoes (oxfords with slight heel)and stockings were worn the first 2 years and then we graduated to white oxfords and stockings in 3rd year in our intern year. We did our formal learning in the new Education Building and an Intern’s Residence was also new at that time on the south side of the Residence. We would walk through the tunnels to go to the hospital. In third year, we could live outside of residence and we made a modest salary as we worked as a nurse, shift work included, while under supervision. We started with around 180 students and ended up with around 120. We graduated in a white uniform and in 1971, they were mini skirts. I remember walking down the steps of the front of the hospital holding our red rose of graduation.

This story was told to me by my Aunt Mary Kettles in 1993.

Charles Kettles, my grandfather, had a farm on the 7th line (now Leitrim Road) and was building up his Holstein herd. He had bought a registered bull named Paul Count Pegee. The day of the accident was Thursday, December 19, 1929. Tom, a Home Boy working on the farm, after taking the children to school by horse and sleigh, returned to the barn just in time to hear Charlie yell “”Tom, Paul”” He saw Charlie being tossed in the air inside the bullpen and bravely entered and pulled him out. Charlie was initially unconscious but later became more lucid.

Doctor Evans came in the afternoon and told the family that Charlie had to go to the hospital. He was dressed in warm clothes and put on a mattress on a single horse sleigh. Two men from neighbouring farms headed off with him to the Ottawa Civic, more than 20 kilometres away. Storming badly, it was a long rough trip on snow-filled roads. Charlie was in bad shape and had no sedation. Late that night on their way home, the two men stopped at the Gorman farm (present intersection of Heron and Walkley) where they woke the owner and were given food for themselves and the horse. Meanwhile at the hospital, Charlie was diagnosed with a fractured skull.

Things then went from bad to worse. Three days later, daughter Jean, age 3, was brought to the Civic with pneumonia and put on the same floor as her father. On Christmas Day, Mary, age 10, arrived seriously ill, also with pneumonia, and was put in the same room as Jean. Luckily, all three improved and, in time, were declared out of danger. Charlie remained on the farm until his death in 1961 whereupon Tom, now the owner of a nearby farm and never forgotten, was asked to be a pallbearer.

This is only one of our family stories that involves the Civic Hospital. My siblings and cousins, their descendants, are always grateful for the part the Civic played in their care and, ultimately, their survival.