Written by Heather and Peter Jones, McAulay’s parents.

We are so proud of the outcome of our 2nd Annual McAulay Jones Memorial Golf Tournament. It is our great honour to present the Health Services Foundation of the South Shore with a donation of $19,240.00. We give this gift on behalf of McAulay, for the benefit of Nursing at the South Shore Regional Hospital. Through a wide variety of community donations and sponsorship of McAulay’s tournament, we are able to support the development of resources for nurses. Support and tools for grief and loss, can be made more accessible to those in need.

I think that no matter what job you do, the people that do it best are the ones who make it personal. People that remain human when it would be so much easier to be machine. Nurses are rarely with us on our best days, unless it is during the birth of our children. Nurses are very often with us on our worst days. The doctors and nurses present on the worst days of our life were skilled and compassionate professionals. It was the nurses though, that saw us through. They cared for McAulay consistently, using their skills and their humanity. They answered hundreds of impossible questions, brought us blankets and tea, while also adjusting monitors, changing IVs and charting vitals. We could hear the hope they wished they could provide and see the hurt despite all best efforts to remain professional. They quietly tried to prepare us for our loss. We will be forever grateful to these kind humans. 

McAulay placed high value on self-care. We know he would wish for anyone affected by his loss to have access to support and tools to care for themselves. Equipment, facilities & systems will always benefit from upgrades. Those upgrades are important and expensive. We could have supported that essential infrastructure, but in this case, we felt it crucial to support the people. Without well supported & healthy health care workers the rest falls apart. This feels like the most appropriate way for us to say thank you.