ALBERTON, P.E.I. — It was a cold February night in 1995 when the Rt. Rev. Michael Oulton went for a walk as he prepared his Sunday sermon.
Now the Anglican Diocesan Bishop of Ontario, Oulton was at that time the rector for the St. Peters Anglican Parish in Alberton, and he had just gotten home from a community forum on health reform.
It was during that contemplative walk that Oulton envisioned a seniors care facility on the adjacent lot.
“I looked over here and I could literally, in my mind’s eye, see this building," Oulton told a gathering recently in the Rev. W.J. Phillips Residence. " I could literally see it, and I thought, 'we can do this'.”
Residents, staff, board members and volunteers were on hand for the official naming of the facility’s apartments wing in Oulton’s honour.
“While I am so deeply honoured at what you’ve done for me here today, and how much this means to me, sometimes, when I think about it, I think I was the guy standing on the top of a hill and pushed the rock down the hill,” said Oulton. “It’s the people who made it happen, the remarkable individuals who came together.”
He reflected on how agencies and volunteers rallied together to make the complex, now made up of 14 apartments in the Rt. Rev. Michael Oulton wing, and 20 community care beds in the previously named Dr. B.R. Sethi wing, a reality. The Rev. W.J. Phillips Residence is currently home to 36 people, including two residents who have been there since the facility opened in 1998.
“What I like most of all is what I see on the faces of the people in this place,” Oulton said. “That was the hope. That was the dream. That was the passion. It was not only mine, but the people who were part of this right from the very beginning.”
Rose Profit has been a resident since 1998 and says it’s home.
“It’s just like living in a big family,” said Profit, who has also worked and volunteered at the facility.
Her advice to anyone moving into the Phillips residence is similar to her own view of the residence: “It’s just like moving into a big family. We all get along.”
Oulton told the large gathering that when a similar type of facility was being proposed for Kingston, Ont., one of the positive examples presented for consideration was the Rev. W.J. Phillips Residence.
“At the heart and soul of what you’re doing in this place is talking about the dignity of every human being,” he told the crowd.
He said the continuum of care is wrapped around the individual, rather than trying to wrap the individual around the care opportunities.
“It’s a completely different way of doing care.”
