Bruce Peninsula Hospice Remembers Marjorie Farell

In 1992 a small group in Lion’s Head met to discuss the possibility of establishing a palliative care hospice group. From those few interested people (including Pat Horner), a Resource Group and then a Steering Committee was formed which had goals of offering hospice services, training volunteers and raising funds to support this endeavor.
Marjorie Farrell, who had moved permanently to Hobson’s Harbour, Little Pike Bay with her husband David, in 1992, joined this group in February 1994 to assist with the volunteer selection process.
Marjorie’s background included training and working as a registered nurse in Hamilton, raising with David their 7 children, and then becoming a manager of the Ontario Heart and Stroke Foundation, Halton Region, which demonstrated her abilities in leadership and volunteerism.
Marjorie began with Bruce Peninsula Hospice as a Volunteer Coordinator and remained as a leader and mentor. She nurtured and encouraged volunteer coordinators in their work in the North and South Peninsula. As Bruce Peninsula Hospice was part of an umbrella organization in Grey / Bruce, our hospice had a Community Coordinating Committee, much like a board. She facilitated board chairpersons, staffed the hospice office, recruited board members, was an unofficial volunteer manager, and also a member of the regional level advisory committee and board. She received the June Callwood Award for hospice in 2000. She was an active leader and participant in several Bruce Peninsula Hospice committees until her accident and injury in the summer of 2010.

From volunteers, words that describe her include: “gracious, caring, compassionate, lots of fun, encouraging, gentle, helpful, determined, tactful. – “She was a visionary, passionate about hospice, and very much an enabler, bringing forth gifts and talents from so many volunteers as well as supporting and nurturing many chairpersons of the organization.” – “She believed in us”.

Marjorie leaves us a legacy, and from her lived example she was an outstanding model for hospice volunteers. Bruce Peninsula Hospice will be forever grateful for her contribution.