The miracle of Christmas

By Terry Fleurie

Staff Writer

Round Lake – A Round Lake resident who was featured in the Leader’s special Christmas edition last week sharing her memories of Christmases past with her sister, is celebrating a significant turn in her ailing sister’s health.

Judy Martin shared her memories from the past growing up in the Killaloe area, knowing her older sister, Maureen Maveety, 82, was seriously ill in a Kingston hospital with kidney failure with a very dire prognosis. Mrs. Martin agreed to do the article, because it helped remind her of the wonderful relationship she had with her sister, and now she is happy to say her sister’s condition has made a dramatic improvement in recent weeks.

“There’s been a dramatic turnaround in her condition and nobody knows why,” Mrs. Martin said. “She had a kidney biopsy and they didn’t

By R. Bruce McIntyre Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Renfrew – Christmas came early for Gertrude Morrow of Richmond after her ticket was picked from among thousands and she is now $797,237 richer as the big winner in the Renfrew Victoria Hospital’s (RVH) Catch the Ace contest.

The draw took place on December 17 in the hospital’s cafeteria. Her selection of number 38 matched the number 38 envelope containing the most elusive Ace of Spades ever seen in the Ottawa Valley.

Just moments before Ms. Morrow’s winning ticket was chosen, Mussrat Shaheen of Barry’s Bay found out her ticket was drawn first which allowed her to claim the weekly winnings totalling $72,336. Her ticket was among the other 72,336 tickets sold in less than a week. Ironically, she purchased her ticket at Eganville Foodland, the same location where the 50th weekly winner purchased her $48,381 winning ticket.

Since the onslaught of the COVID pandemic, the weekly draw has taken place in a section of the hospital far away from regular hospital activity. However, the final Catch the Ace draw was held in the cafeteria with less than 20 people in the area and spaced six-feet apart.

Making the draw in front of an audience added a high level of excitement to the event and reminded those in attendance of the first Catch the Ace lottery when the weekly draws were held at Finnigan’s in Renfrew before sold-out crowds numbering around 200.

When RVH Foundation Executive Director Patti Dillabough gave the signal for the weekly draw to begin, Foundation members Patti Watters and Steven Lyons began spinning the big blue drum containing the tickets. Fellow Foundation member Melanie Clemmer reached deep into the drum and drew the name of Mussrat Shaheen and she was declared the weekly winner. However, the envelope she chose did not contain the Ace of Spades.

say the tissue was damaged or hurt, they said it was dead.

“They were giving her a bit of dialysis just to keep her alive while they were trying to find out what was wrong with her, and she had a violent reaction to the dialysis,” she added. “She convulsed and went temporarily blind, so they had to stop the treatments.”

Mrs. Martin said her sister, a retired Ontario Provincial Police officer, originally thought she had COVID after becoming very ill. She was hospitalized on October 30 after failing at home for about a week and was diagnosed with kidney failure. Ironically, only a few weeks earlier, her sister had a check-up with a family doctor and her kidney function was fine.

“That just proves it was an onset thing. It hadn’t been going on for a long time,” Mrs. Martin said. “This was completely out of control and when she couldn’t take the dialysis anymore, they told her she only had a couple of weeks.”

Her sister asked to go home for awhile to get her affairs in order, and the doctors agreed. Mrs. Martin went to Kingston to assist her.

“We got rid of her apartment, her car, all of her personal belongings and clothes, everything. She was then taken to palliative care by ambulance. The doctors said it was moving very quickly, it was very aggressive.”

Mrs. Martin said they were told her sister likely would not make it to Christmas and after the first week, she wasn’t feeling worse. Mrs. Maveety asked them to check her and they explained their job was to keep her comfortable, that it was not a hospital equipped for that.

By the end of the second week, when her condition had still not worsened, the facility had some doctors come in to see her, and the first test for the toxins had improved to a point where it was better than the ones at the appointment before she took ill.

“There was no explanation, and they kept an eye on her for a few days and said there was nothing wrong with her,” Mrs. Martin explained. “So they switched her to rehab in the facility in Kingston and she has been there for over a week to get her strength back.

“She’s now in rehab with nothing wrong with her kidneys,” she added. “They want her to go back to the hospital again to try and figure out if this could happen again or what caused the turn-around.”

While her sister is not necessarily a religious person, she does believe in the power of the universe, the Divine, the energy, whatever it is.

“She doesn’t care if you call it God or not, it’s just something a whole lot bigger than any of us.”

“She was quite content to die. She was thinking this was her time to get it over with in a hurry,”

Mrs. Martin made a recent trip to Kingston with some clothes for her sister, knowing her belongings were all gone.

“I packed a suitcase for the hospital

Ailing sister whose prognosis was bleak suddenly recovering from kidney ailment Woman

and a suitcase for when she gets out of the hospital. I don’t know if she’s going to come here when she gets out or go to a friend’s house because she doesn’t have anything.

“I packed a winter coat and a pair of boots, some underwear for the hospital,” she added. “Then for when she gets out, I packed a few outfits.”

Mrs. Martin had brought a lot of her sister’s clothes home with her after they cleaned out her apartment, noting she has really nice clothes.

“We know everything’s going to fit her, because it’s all hers.”

Mrs. Martin said initially her sister was still too weak to think about what was happening, but then she started to think about what she was going to do going forward.

“She thought it was a glitch, but apparently it’s not a glitch. It is miraculous, whatever it was.

“How can the kidneys be dead and now be alive again?” members cheered together.

Catch the Ace Benefits Everyone

With $1.3 million raised through the second installment of Catch the Ace the RVH Catch the Ace not only went the distance of 52 cards, but it did so despite two extended periods of time when all ticket sales stopped due to the restrictions of the COVID pandemic. The lottery began in August 2020 and it took until December to finally close out the second version of Catch the Ace.

Ms. Dillabough explained the upgrades to the ER Department will commence early in the New Year and the construction will be phased in over a longer stretch of time because they don’t want to be intrusive as front-line health care workers deal with some complex cases and require private, uninterrupted service. The foundation’s first Catch the Ace had a run of 46 weeks before more than a million dollars was won by a resident from Ashton who won both the progressive and weekly prize. Unlike the lottery that just wrapped up, the first one had widespread support and the excitement was felt all through Eastern Ontario. The $2.5 million raised was used to purchase portable X-Ray units for various departments.

Ms. Dillabough said after a break, there will be a third lottery.

As the suspense began to build, Ms. Clemmer made her way to the locked glass case containing two envelopes with the numbers 38 and 41 on them. If the Ace of Spades was contained in envelope 41, then not only would Shaheen win the weekly prize, but the progressive jackpot as well which means she could have won a total of $869,583. When Ms. Clemmer opened the envelope, it revealed the six of Clubs and not the Ace of Spades.

One envelope, number 38 remained the only one on the board and everyone knew the Ace of Spades was hid- den inside. As Ms. Clemmer walked over to the drum, the volunteers stopped spinning it and Ms. Clemmer pulled out a ticket with the number 38 written on it.

Gertrude Morrow of Richmond was identified as the name on the ticket. In order to the make the lottery legal and completed, Ms. Clemmer once again made her way to the board and drew the number 41 envelope. As she slowly opened the envelope, the small crowd of 14 people clapped in unison and as Ms. Clemmer slowly turned the card around to reveal the Ace of Spades, the crowd and foundation

“I want everyone to know we are going to take a little break and catch our breath and the third installment, or the trilogy, will be up and running in April 2022,” she said. “We are timing it so it fits in with our Cancer Awareness campaign. The funds we raise from the next Catch the Ace lottery will be used to purchase a new mammogram machine as the current one is 10 years old. In medical terms, it is past its due date and our goal will be to bring a new one to RVH.”

Ms. Dillabough said the winners have been contacted by foundation staff and they are trying to coordinate a time this week for the cheques to be awarded.

Firefighters from Laurentian Valley Township were on scene to extricate the injured 86-year-old driver of the SUV involved in the crash. He was airlifted by ORNGE to an Ottawa hospital with serious but non-lifethreatening injuries.

Fire destroys Petawawa home

Petawawa – A home at 38 Bedard Blvd. in Petawawa was destroyed by fire last Tuesday night.

The Petawawa Town Fire Department responded to a report of a structure fire at about 7:40 o’clock in the Laurentian Highlands subdivision. On scene within seven minutes, fire crews were faced with heavy fire exiting the roof from the south-west side of the home. At 7:52 p.m. all occupants of the home were accounted for and fire crews initiated an exterior defensive attack due to high winds and unsafe conditions.

It took approximately two hours, 16 firefighters, three pumpers, one utility truck and a heavy rescue pumper to bring the fire under control.

Garrison Petawawa Fire Department provided assistance with one pumper and crew. There were no reported injuries to civilians or firefighters. Fire crews remained on scene throughout the night and into Wednesday morning, checking for fire extension and overhaul operations. The structure was a total loss. The cause of THE fire is currently under investigation by the Ontario Fire Marshall’s Office and the Town of Petawawa Fire Department.

Charges laid following robbery investigation

Pembroke -- Members of the Upper Ottawa Valley (UOV) Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) crime unit arrested an adult female last Thursday in connection with a robbery at a restaurant in the 700 block of Pembroke Street East which occurred on December 13.

Charlotte Wachter, 38, of Pembroke, has been charged with robbery with theft, possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000 and disguise with intent.

The accused is scheduled to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice in Pembroke on a later date.

Late Tuesday morning, police charged a second person with robbery withtheft and possession of methamphetamine.

Richard Dale Vanderbeck, 63, of no fixed address is scheduled to appear in court in Pembroke on February 15.

Charges laid following serious crash at Hwy. 17 and B-Line

Laurentia Valley – The driver of a tractor trailer who ran a red light on Highway 17 last Wednesday morning that resulted in an 86-year-old person being airlifted to hospital has been charged with failing to stop at a red light.

The collision occurred at about 6:30 a.m. at the intersection of B-Line Road. Upper Ottawa Valley Ontario Provincial Police reported the westbound tractor trailer collided with an SUV that was travelling southbound on B-Line. The collision knocked the rear wheels off of the trailer which then slid into an eastbound SUV on Hwy. 17.

The elderly SUV driver, a resident of Laurentian Valley Township, was extricated by firefighters from Laurentian Valley Township Fire Department and airlifted from the scene by an ORNGE air ambulance with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. A 61-year-old passenger in the same vehicle from Kingston and the 41-year-old driver of the SUV, from Deep River, that was travelling on 17 were both taken to hospital in Pembroke by land ambulance with non-life-threatening injuries. A passenger in the tractor trailer was not injured. Highway 17 was closed for several hours due to the investigation and removal of the involved vehicles by North Algonquin Towing.

Names of those involved in the collision were not released.