Canuck Place - "A Place Between Heaven and Earth"

To the staff of Canuck Place,

Tomorrow will mark one week since we arrived... and we are all starting to feel like ourselves again. After Gabrielle and I said a very tearful goodbye to the docs and nurses on 3B at BCCH, we were escorted by the ambulance personel downstairs and were ambulanced from the hospital to Canuck Place.  It was a warm sunny day when we arrived.  After being in the hospital for almost 4 months, I felt hollow, I was utterly exhausted, big bags under my eyes, pale, had no idea what the next week or month of our lives would look like, hadn't showered in a few days and was ready to collapse.

When I stepped outside of the ambulance with Gabrielle on the stretcher in her car seat, I felt like I had stepped into another world.  I squinted my eyes at the sunlight and looked around to beautiful flowers and green grass, birds chirping, and a big beautiful mansion out of a storybook or movie.

The paramedics escorted us to the back of the house and the elevator doors opened up as soon as we got there.  It's as if you were waiting for us to arrive.  We came up to the second floor and the first person I saw was one of our doctors who has been following Gabrielle since our NICU days, and I wanted to cry with relief.  A familiar face who has seen Gabrielle almost every day of her entire transplant, through the ICU and now through our transition to Canuck Place and then home.  We walked into Gabrielle's room and my jaw dropped at the sight of her beautiful big room, painted a light green with massive windows, a huge bathroom and a nice warm breeze.  It was heaven.  I was overwhelmed again with emotion as I was so relieved for my baby girl to finally be out of the hospital and into a wonderful, loving, cozy environment.

Every day has been like this since we arrived.  Every day I am filled with awe, relief and gratitude to all the people of this establishment.  You saved our family.  We no longer have bags under our eyes, we are staring to feel whole, we have energy again and colour in our faces.

Canuck Place is allowing Regan and I to take care of ourselves, which is, ironically helping us take care of everyone and everything else.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,
The Ross's