Open My Eyes

Last night my husband and I decided to take in the Open House of Oxford County VON's almost open Sakura House, a hospice for terminally ill people. Below is the sketch from the Sakura House website but it is a pale imitation of the real thing.We had to park on the highway, there were so many visitors coming to take a peek but we are quite able to hike a few hundred feet. For those who are not, parking onsite was available. From the moment I stepped through the massive front door into the front hall, I knew this home had been stellar. A wealthy business owner whose property was part of the huge Toyota buyout for their new plant a few years ago called this his family home. The website says it is something like ten thousand square feet. Not many homes measure that!
To the left of the main hall is a stunning library with carved wooden ceiling and rich mahogany coloured shelves. I've no doubt they are mahogany or some other real wood. No MDF here! The tour continued with the main house built on the open concept and left like that for the hospice. A new two-pronged wing with about 8 suites sits to the left of the main building and is joined to it as though it were always there.
The rooms are not like hospital rooms. Each has its entrance off the hall but also a private entrance to the yard beyond. At the back of the house the view is of the stunning sunken garden with sitting space and lots of green space for idle contemplation. We were entranced. The single hospital bed in each room has a grained wood headboard and footboard and is made up with a colourful bedspread. A comfortable chair, television, lovely wooden wardrobe complete the room. The bathroom is modern, subtly coloured with an easy access shower which ambulatory or wheelchair patients could easily use.
Everywhere I looked I saw a gorgeous view, both inside and out, reminding me of the Sun Yat Sen garden in Vancouver which we visited many years ago. Some have the front sweeping circular drive and surrounding plantings. Others have the north where a very healthy field of corn looked like it had been groomed to best advantage just for the Open House. Still others have the lovely back gardens. Everyone has peace just outside the window.
I have friends who have been way more involved in the project than I and now their selfless giving has more meaning for me. What a wonderful place for terminally ill people to spend their last days.
For those who wonder as I did about the name Sakura House it comes from the Japanese word for cherry blossom which symbolizes "an annual spring celebration of the shifting seasons. [It] evokes the bittersweet undercurrent of past seasons and the fleeting nature of human existence." Pretty fitting for a hospice, I think, and also because it has come about because of the generosity of the Toyota company--a Japanese word and a Japanese company.

I am totally in awe of the achievement that so many people have worked so hard to bring about. Thinking about it I've decided that the word sakura should mean selfless love.