IT WAS fitting that both Bill and Helene McRae were at the Feb. 28 Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce luncheon to hear provincial finance minister Mike de Jong announce that Mills Memorial Hospital would be replaced.
If there was ever a couple that carried and inspired health care in Terrace and area it’s the McRaes.
It was Mr. McRae who organized the purchase of the land in the 1950s on which the current Mills now sits and on which the new one will be located and essentially presented it as a gift to the province.
And it was the McRaes that were at the forefront of the creation of the Dr. R.E.M. Lee Hospital Foundation in the late 1980s which brought the first CT scan machine to Terrace and which has served as the focal point for donations to purchase medical equipment for years now.
A letter sent by the McRaes to Premier Christy Clark last fall put it succinctly: “We need a suitable environment that ensures our medical profession can be retained to serve their patients and one where the patients can have a safe recovery.”
For many of us, having a new hospital built in our home community is a once in a lifetime occurence.
For the McRaes, to have two built, in a lifetime is remarkable.
So this is an early note for health care officials: there can no more tribute made to them, then to name a wing of the new Mills Memorial in recognition of their dedication.
