Sister Theresa Roddy remembers the game changing moment quite clearly.
The dimunitive nun who now calls Peterborough, Ont. home, said the St. Joseph's Hospital board meeting she attended as the executive director of the quickly aging health care facility on First Street back in the mid-1980s, was one she would probably always remember.
"The news we got that day was pretty overwhelming," she said with a slight smile.
The engineers and analysts had done their job and delivered the news that a refurbishing of the existing hospital, which had already undergone four extensions and renovations, was going to cost about $44 million.
But that wasn't all. The board members also learned at that meeting that doing the necessary renovations to bring the hospital up to standards could possibly take up to eight years to complete.
Building a new hospital, on the other hand, would cost about $27 million, the experts estimated.
"I immediately began to think about the patients. How could we care for patients while construction workers were there every day for years. They would be working around the patients. I just couldn't see it," she said.
The decision was obvious, and it came quickly after the news was received.
Twenty-one years later, Sister Roddy was back in Estevan to help mark St. Joseph's 75th anniversary as the primary, primary health care provider in the city and region. She and the other sisters in the order had departed the scene in 1993, shortly after the new hospital came to life.
It was the Sisters of St. Joseph who saved the city by building Estevan's first community hospital in 1938, and they were the ones who led the charge that resulted in a new hospital being officially opened in 1992, within the budget and by building huge community support in the process, that support manifested itself in over $12 million being raised on the local front to make the new facility a reality.
The nearly week-long activities that led to a final afternoon community social on Nov. 28, brought the history of St. Joseph's Hospital to life once again as a few people in the city and surrounding rural municipalities recalled those earlier days with the old hospital and the fundraising drives that were held to either keep it going, or were directed toward the construction of a replacement.
Sister Frances Baker who served at St. Joseph's from 1971 to 1974 before moving on to provide comfort and care for HIV/AIDS sufferers in Brazil (23 years) and Africa (13 years), also made the return trip to help the community celebrate. She recalled the conditions in the old hospital that had been reworked and revamped a number of times in an effort to keep it relevant and useful to a growing city.
Current executive director, Greg Hoffort served as emcee for a brief but meaningful wind-up social in the hospital's auditorium last Thursday afternoon, an event that attracted aabout 50 people.
Hoffort paid homage to Roddy, noting that it was her dedication to the effort that ensured a new hospital was going to get built. He said the legacy left by the Sisters of St. Joseph will never go unrecognized since it was key to the survival of the city back in the Depression.
That first 40-bed hospital, he noted, was built in under six months at a total cost of $165,000, with the majority of the funding coming from the Sisters of St. Joseph, who secured the loan when the City of Estevan couldn't and then supplied the core nursing, housekeeping and dietary staff once it was built.
Hoffort also thanked the City of Estevan for the motion that approved the renaming of Woodlawn Avenue, the road that leads to the access to St. Joseph's as Sister Roddy Road.
"We've had the staff breakfast, special mass, auxiliary tea, wine and cheese for the board members and an alumni tea and now this celebration," said Hoffort. "This community day is especially important because we have gone to this community time and time again, and they have always responded positively, and in the meantime, the staff goes above and beyond expectations."
Rev. Stewart Miller, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, spoke on behalf of the Estevan Ministerial Association, and noted how although the hospital was built within the paradigm of a Roman Catholic community, St. Joseph's has always embraced the body, spirit and the hearts of all religions and extended privileges to all to be a part of the team that has been able to work within the healing community.
"To be invited in and share in that is a pleasure and a privilege," Miller said. "So we connect with you and that is a joy. You have provided 75 years of great skill, work and deep faith."
Estevan Mayor Roy Ludwig also shared a few thoughts and words of thanks not only to the sisters but also the community.
"Sister Roddy ensured the funds were raised. She was an instrumental person in building this hospital, and our thanks also have to go the hospital's board of directors, past and present," Ludwig said. He added the surrounding RMs were to be thanked for their ongoing support as well as assistance in the past, and they remained key elements in the ongoing efforts to recruit staff and funding improvements.
"Then, of course, we have the St. Joe's staff, the backbone of this whole operation," he said.
Current board chairman Don Kindopp paid tribute to past board members, including Richard Hagel, who was also present and one who has spent decades in service along with many long-serving members. Kindopp noted how vital the fundraising efforts are to this day, whether it's being done by the auxiliary or by the hospital foundation or the South East Health Committee.
"They have all seen the need, and all have responded," Kindopp said.
"Sister Roddy said earlier that their order's mandate has always been seen as one where they went where the need was the greatest, and they chose Estevan those many years ago, and we thank them for that."
Kindopp then said there were at least three main objectives for the current St. Joseph's to attack in the near future as the community had to always look forward, even while enjoying the reflections of the past.
"We would like to have this hospital serve as a centre for a medical residency training program for doctors who are in their second year of training. It would give us potential professionals.
"A new Estevan Regional Nursing Home should be built soon, and it will be located here, attached to this hospital. That will be another positive addition," he said, referring to another recent addition, a medical clinic that has already been built and occupied as an addition to the hospital.
"The third is the acquisition of a CT scanner. The need for this in a community like ours is obvious, and it would help make our hospital an even more welcoming and healing place."
Tanya Nichol, a part-time pharmaceutical technician at the hospital, who provided the majority of planning and logistical support for the week-long celebration later told The Mercury she was happy to have been so involved.
"Greg (Hoffort) asked me if I would be interested in helping out, and it just seemed like something I should do, and it was definitely something I liked doing. It was exciting just being a part of it," she said.
The Thursday social wound up with the cutting of two anniversary cakes by Sister Roddy and Hoffort and a round of visits that included residents from the long-term care wing, day hospital program and several staff members who wandered in and out as their work schedules allowed.
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