Nineteen Beds

According to Hospice Whitby, Durham Region has 19 residential hospice beds. Not nineteen hospices. Nineteen beds. When Neil Orr’s wife, Heather, spent her final week at Oak Ridges Hospice in Port Perry, Neil stayed there too. “I lived there for a week,” he told The Uxbridge Cosmos. “We had a toy box there for the grandkids.” Before arriving, he’d imagined an old house pressed into service as a hospice, with bad food and low standards. What he found changed his mind. Most of us would probably picture a hospital bed. Neil remembered a toy box. A residential hospice provides nursing care around the clock, with private rooms and space for relatives to stay overnight. For Durham residents with a valid Ontario health card, the care is free. Palliative care is also available in hospitals and at home, but a hospice residence offers another setting. One where, as Neil discovered, the grandchildren can still be grandchildren. The Canadian Cancer Society cites a benchmark of seven hospice beds for every 100,000 people. Applied to Durham’s population of more than 800,000, that works out to roughly 57. We have 19. A benchmark isn’t a waiting list. It doesn’t tell us how many families sought a bed and couldn’t get one. But the gap is difficult to ignore. There has been progress, and considerable effort behind it. Oak Ridges opened in 2021, followed by Marigold Hospice in Newcastle in October 2025. Roger Anderson House in Whitby is still under construction, with 10 private rooms planned. Even when those rooms open, Durham will have only about half the benchmark. It is worth remembering that the first of these residences opened just five years ago. What I hadn’t appreciated was that building a hospice is only the beginning of the fundraising. Whitby says most of its construction costs must be raised in the community. In September, organizers were still looking ahead to the furniture and equipment they’d need, right down to recliners and laundry machines. Then there is the matter of keeping the lights on, the meals coming and the staff available. The province contributes to operating costs and has increased its support. Even so, Marigold says it must raise more than $700,000 every year. Its fundraising suggestions include bake sales, garage sales, barbecues and car washes. It’s the sort of list you might find at a school trying to pay for band uniforms. Except this is a place where people spend their final days. Some of those purchases are anything but ordinary. In November 2025, a Handbags for Hospice event in Whitby raised enough money to buy three cuddle beds. They’re specially designed so that someone nearing the end of life can lie beside a person they love. Nobody hands the family a bill for hospice care. But somebody may be selling cupcakes on a Saturday to help make it possible.