The Anonymous Donor

This weekend I participated in a hike to raise money for our local Hospice organization.  A 7km hike is not the greatest of physical feats but the cause is one that is extremely important to me; we are trying to raise money to build a residential hospice in our area. Right now the closest residential hospice is in Barrie.  It is a gorgeous facility but it is either too far for families to travel or it means patients transferring to a different doctor in Barrie once they make the move.  As a result, out residents are left with only two options – dying at home or dying in hospital.

Today the need for a local hospice was driven home to me even more when one of my very favourite patients, whose family I have grown very close to over the past 5 months, got offered a bed at Hospice Simcoe. Although I know it is the right decision for them, saying goodbye at this stage in the game was hard on all of us.  As I explained it once to Rob, it’s like teaching Grade 8 all year and then missing the last week of school and graduation.   It will be SO nice when we will be able to truly deliver on our promise to walk with people right to the end.

I am happy to report that the hike was a huge success.  Not only did all 4 of the Henry crew participate, but there were no tears, tantrums OR injuries to speak of (all thanks to numerous boxes of raisins and good old fashioned peanut butter sandwiches.)

Today, after being told that our fundraising and perilous hiking escapades managed to raise over $85,000 I set to work at sending out a thank you email to everyone who had sponsored me.  I had a pretty good idea of who to include in the email as I had taken note of each sponsorship notification as it came in, but just to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anyone I went through my emails one last time.

As I was nearing the end of them I found a surprising one that caught me off guard.  How had I not noticed this before?  Some anonymous donor had sponsored me $500!!!! I couldn’t believe it!  I quickly perused the email to see if there were any indications as to who it was  -- there were none.  No name, no address, no email, NOTHING but the impressive sum of $500.

I was sitting in Toyota waiting for my snow tires to be removed as I made this discovery and I sheepishly admit to tearing up in public as I thought about this “secret admirer” that I must have.  I soon realized that it HAD to be a former patient or grateful family; Rob would never sponsor me that much without TELLING me about it and my parents and good friends had all already donated.  The pride of knowing that what I do means THAT much to someone was overwhelming.   I kept glancing around the room to see if my emotional response was going to go by unnoticed.  It wasn’t.  But who cared? It’s not EVERYDAY that you realize what your…

And then it hit me.

I had forgotten that in my excitement about registering for the hike and setting up my webpage I had also sponsored myself.

$500.

Anonymously.

Sigh.  It was a nice thought while it lasted…