A mother who nurtured, a businesswoman who thrived, a grandmother who cherished, an artist who created, a wife who loved deeply.

Lorene Donaldson was born in Stratford on December 11, 1931. She grew up on a dairy farm and was the eldest of four children. After graduating high school, Lorene worked for about nine years as a book keeper in the business office at the Stratford General Hospital. Lorene met John, her future husband, at a corn roast. After dating for a few years, they married in 1957.

Within five years of marriage John and Lorene welcomed three sons, with the fourth arriving in 1967.

At the time, John worked for Loblaws, a job that required the family to relocate frequently. 

“In 1975 I left Loblaws and we came back to Stratford to take over what at the time was known as the Red & White Store, renaming it Lori-Jo Supermarket,” says John.

The Donaldson name was too long to fit across the marquee, so Lorene and John shortened each of their first names to create a new moniker that would be heralded in the city for over 45 years. For 24 of these 45 years, the Donaldson’s were owners and operators with John running the store and Lorene balancing the books and paying the bills.

“I’ve known the Donaldson’s for 35 years,” says Susan Engels, John’s daughter-in-law. “I’ve watched as Lorene and John grew in their marriage, in their faith and in their store. They worked very hard. They were a pair; a pair in business and a pair in spirit. They were one another’s social outlet. The grocery business was seven days a week, long hours and so they spent a lot of time together, both at work and at home raising their four boys.”

When Lorene wasn’t at the store, or busy with the boys, she baked, sewed and painted.

“Lorene always wanted to work with her hands. When the kids were small, I didn’t work on Friday mornings and Lorene went downtown to shop and she’d come home with a bundle of fabric. She was a wonderful seamstress. She’d make most of the clothes for the children. She made most of her own clothes. She even made her bathing suits and she looked good in them,” says John with a chuckle.

Lorene also made curtains and beautiful bedspreads. Her paintings adorned the walls of their home and cottage over the years and, to this day, still provide great joy to John and his sons.

In 2021, Lorene was diagnosed with vascular dementia, congestive heart failure, and other complex needs.

“With dementia, the timeline is interesting because you don’t often really know when the symptoms start and you don’t really know when to access professional help,” adds Susan who is a retired healthcare executive. “So in the early stages when Lorene’s behaviours were changing John thought that it was just part of aging and that Lorene was having a bad stretch. She became a bit anxious and she became a little more uncomfortable about having people in the house, even her own children. She would fret and I think that was the beginning for John and Lorene in understanding that dementia doesn’t always look the same for everyone.”

In 2021 John and Lorene relocated to an aging-in-place village in Waterloo, and Lorene began receiving care at Grand River Hospital – Freeport Campus. Under the care of Dr. Koke and his team, Lorene was treated as a person first and celebrated for her life’s devotion to the community. A person-centred approach is an integral part of the Continuum of Care, and in dementia care, this type of comprehensive approach is particularly valuable. Getting to know each patient and learning about their lives facilitates meaningful connections that allows care providers to personalize care and incorporate individualized activities.

John and Lorene celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary at Grand River Hospital. By this time Lorene’s illness had progressed to the stage where she needed assistance getting dressed. As her nurse helped her that day she asked Lorene how she had stayed with the same man for 65 years. “I picked the right one,” she said without hesitation.

In June of 2022 Lorene passed away. Since then John has made it a mission to make a difference in dementia care in a loving tribute to Lorene.

John’s first gifts were made to Grand River Hospital – Freeport Campus to help Dr. Koke and his team to acquire therapeutic tools to enhance neurobehavioural care.

And while Lorene did not receive care at the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance (HPHA) – Stratford General Hospital, John knew she’d want to support care in the community where she and John spent so much of their lives, and where John lives currently.

“We’re giving back to the community because we feel that the people of Stratford helped us make money, and we’re giving back some of that profit to the community,” says John.  “It would be something that Lorene would appreciate. She was always a giving person, she worried about others as much as she worried about herself.”

John’s gift, in loving memory of Lorene, to HPHA – Stratford General Hospital will provide enhanced staff training and resources to care for patients living with dementia. This donation supports safety technology, such as a WanderGaurd system for the Medicine Unit, sensory murals, art and therapy tools and education and training for the HPHA healthcare team.

“The training program being sponsored is called PIECES and it’s a holistic, evidence-informed and team-based approach to the care of persons with dementia and other related disorders,” says Susan. “It considers a person’s life prior to their illness - their interests, their hobbies, their loves - and it tries to bridge who the person was prior to the disease onset and their needs now that they are no longer able to express them. So you are getting to know people by their history, by their family’s collateral information. You’re trying to understand the person as a whole being, and the team can then be informed by that in making decisions about care.”

John recently visited HPHA – Stratford General Hospital to take part in a cheque presentation and to meet some of the team members on the units that his donation will impact.

 “When I first met John what was so apparent was his love for Lorene,” says Cheryl Hunt, Executive Director of the Stratford General Hospital Foundation. “It has been an honour to work with John, hear stories about his life with Lorene and meet his family. The philanthropic journey he has embarked upon will make a real difference in our ability to care for patients living with dementia and other related disorders.”

For caregivers and families of persons with dementia, Susan offers the following reflection on her experience.

“Dementia doesn’t define the person. The person who you’ve loved all of your life and who’s been a parent and a businesswoman and an artist and a wife, all of these things remain equally important as the part that now includes dementia. And I think it’s critically important for people to understand that the relationship between the healthcare providers and the clients is paramount to recovery or at least a peaceful death, that without a relationship, without recognizing the value of the human being in the bed, you really have nothing.”

Every story matters, every donation makes a difference, just as Lorene’s life and legacy continue to do.

Watch Lorene & John's story.