Troy Shantz
After learning Vision Nursing Home resident Catherine King had gone to square dances as a girl, one of her personal support workers tracked down some country music and headphones.
And in King’s final days, another PSW placed a Rosary in her hands.
Those and other acts of kindness by Lambton College-trained staff were front of mind when widower James King decided to give the school $350,000.
“They were all extremely caring. It was a joy to see. I felt naming a scholarship in her name was the right thing to do,” he said.
James King was at his wife’s side when she died March 14. She was afflicted with dementia and spent her final few months at the Wellington Street nursing home.
“They took very good care of her,” he said.
The Catherine King PSW Scholarship will provide full tuition to at least one student annually training to become a personal support worker.
“I am overjoyed and extremely grateful for the generosity from Mr. King, though I’m not surprised our PSW grads had such an impact,” said Silvana Macdonald, Lambton’s dean of health and community services.
King said home staff went above and beyond and provided regular updates on his wife. Asked one day about her favourite music, he recalled that Catherine’s father had called square dances and would often bring his young daughter along.
Soon, Catherine King was tapping her toes and dancing to the music.
The PSW who provided the Rosary asked that it be cremated with her, which meant a lot to him and the family, James King said.
Just days after Catherine’s passing the COVID-19 pandemic struck Sarnia with a vengeance. James King was alarmed to discover many of the staff that cared for his wife were, like most Ontario PSWs at the time, working more than one long-term care home to make ends meet.
King emailed Premier Doug Ford directly and told him personal support workers shouldn’t have to do that.
Ford responded personally. “He said he agreed whole-heartedly,” King recalled.
The premier issued an emergency order in April prohibiting employees from working at multiple facilities.
James King worked at the Polymer Rubber plant and met his future wife at a dance at Sarnia’s historic Kenwick on the Lake. They married on June 7, 1952.
The couple later moved to Ottawa, then Toronto, where he started an HR consultancy company that opened offices in 80 countries around the world.
The Kings moved back to Sarnia about five years ago.