Lorraine joined Mission Health Care Auxiliary in 1961, she has been in the Auxiliary for 55 years. At that time, prospective members were introduced by current members, and Lorraine was introduced by Eleanor Lobb, who herself is still a working member today.
Lorraine even had to get baby sitters so that she could attend meetings. At the beginning, Lorraine was one of those members who worked behind the scenes – doing laundry and sewing which included mending and sewing on labels. She was a member of the sewing group who, among many projects, was responsible for making a bed quilt for every resident in the new ECU that opened in 1978, quilts for third floor and pediatrics, and smocks for the nurses in pediatrics in “kiddie” material.
Up until 2005, Lorraine made many hand puppets that were given to children in Pediatrics and after the closing of Pediatrics, to children in Emergency and the Laboratory.
Between 1964 and 1981, there was a Hospital Auxiliary Ball with a different theme each year; Lorraine played an important and inventive part with the creation of the costumes and decorations, and has made a book about the Balls.
When the Auxiliary began to have men as members, Lorraine made blue vests for them to wear. She is a knitter as well as a sewer and was a convener of that group. Lorraine has herself knitted about five baby sets every year for over fifty years – almost three hundred sets, and many pairs of slippers and socks.
After Regionalization, Lorraine represented the Auxiliaries of the Upper Fraser Valley at the meetings of the Fraser Valley Hospital Foundation Board and is a member of that Board today.
One of her greatest gifts to the Hospital and to the Auxiliary was the starting of the Emergency Clothing Cupboard in 2007 after a nurse in Emergency mentioned how many people were in need of clothing before they could leave.
Lorraine buys many items of clothing like shoes and sweat pants and takes any suitable items from The Cottage home to sanitize before checking and restocking the cupboard in Emergency each month. The service is much appreciated by the staff.
Cynthia Butcher is quoted as saying: “On a personal note, I have known Lorraine since I was a new teacher from England at Mission Secondary School in 1969. A grade 8 student called Renee, whose father was a commercial fisherman, invited me to her home in Silverdale to go on a salmon run on the river and after, to a salmon BBQ cooked by her mother. That mother was Lorraine and in all my years of teaching, this was the only student invite that I would receive.”
On June 3, 2015 Wendy Matus, President of the Auxiliary at the time, presented Lillian with a Life Membership of the Mission Health Care Auxiliary.
The following article was published in the January/February 2009 issue of the BCAHA Newsletter, and was submitted by Lillian Dudfield (Lillian was a long time member of the Auxiliary who sadly passed away in December 2015).
