Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare has honoured a former employee who passed away from cancer.
John Nicholls was the tradesmen painter at the west end hospital campus for 25 years and died in 2014 at the age of 60 from melanoma cancer.
He had terminal cancer for two years, but continued to work up until the week before he passed away.
He was part of a lottery group at the hospital and 30 weeks after he passed away, the lottery group of 10 people won $5.8-million.
To remember him, employees pitched in some of their winnings to install some musical equipment in a parkette at the hospital.
Widow Suzanne Nichols says the lottery win was a bit ironic.
"Of course all of his colleagues said this is John sending us a message. He was just loved and had a great sense of humour," she says. "He made his mark here. John's fingerprints are on every single building here. He painted all over this property, so he got to know everybody and they all knew and loved him."
Hotel-Dieu Grace recognizes a long-time donor, Royal Bank of Canada. May 14, 2019 (Photo by AM800's Teresinha Medeiros)
The hospital's foundation "Changing Lives Together" unveiled the new musical playground equipment Tuesday, along with a sign to recognize a long-time donor, the Royal Bank of Canada.
It unveiled a sign in the parkette named the Wellness Hub to recognize RBC which has donated $660,000 to the hospital over the years.
Vice President of RBC Business Financial Services David Ochs says it's more than a partnership, it's a friendship between the two groups.
"They adhere to transparency and trust in the areas they focus on and how they have treated us in coming to us proactively with this opportunity and saying we value your contributions over the years to us, that's true friendship so we value them."
The musical playground equipment in the parkette is used by children visiting patients at the hospital along with the public.