Retired Salmon Arm nurse and instructor Donna Lessard is pictured in this undated photograph.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Denis Lessard

Family members gather in a spacious, brightly lit living room in a third storey apartment chatting, laughing and baking together on a gloomy winter day in Salmon Arm.

They are gathered for a very difficult and profound reason, to spend time with the beloved matriarch of the family who is bedridden in a comfortable room just down the hall.  

Donna Lessard, 77, is dying of lung and liver cancer and only has weeks left to live.

“I’m so happy I get to share my memories before I go,” she said, propped up on a pillow on her bed, her long hair hanging loosely around her face and her intelligent eyes full of liveliness and joy.

The space around her is calm and inviting. Warm light pours through a window, the sounds of her family trickle down the hall while members stop by the door to check in on her.

With five children, 13 grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren and her husband Marcel of 55 years, family has always been the focus of Donna’s life and continues to be.

“Laying here in bed, I do the best I can to stay cheerful and positive, these are the last days I spend on earth, why would I wreck them with dark days,” Donna said, working to get a deep breath. “I love my children, I’m there for them always and now they’re here for me.”

One of Donna’s children from Texas has been there looking after her for the past few weeks. Donna’s son Denis Lessard has been visiting regularly from Kamloops with his wife and children.

“We get here as much as we can, we want to enjoy every minute we have with her,” he said.

This photograph of Salmon Arm residents Donna Lessard (left) and Marcel Lessard was taken on their wedding day in 1969.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Denis Lessard

A big, caring family is not the only legacy Donna is leaving behind. She was also a pioneer in many ways when it came to her nursing career.

She was born in Saskatoon in 1947 where she was raised on a farm, and later raised her own family on a farm until moving them to Sorrento in 1989.

Growing up, she failed Grades five and 10, before dropping out of high school.

Uncommon for the time, Donna went back to school at the age of 45 and didn’t stop advancing her education and nursing career until age 67.

“My two teenagers sent me back to school. I always joked they sent me back because they thought if I had a life, they’d have a life,” she said. “What they didn’t expect was a professional student.”

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Donna successfully earned her GED. The two teens then signed her up for a test that would inform her what careers she is most suited for. 

“I’ll never forget it, I took that test and when I looked up from my desk where I was writing, two little heads were staring over, waiting to find out what was going to happen to my life.”

The test results pointed Donna toward policing, nursing or paramedics. She went to Okanagan College to study nursing and passed with flying colours, becoming an RN at age 50.

“I loved school, every portion of it, and after my first year I was eligible to get a job as a care aid so I worked at places in Salmon Arm during the summer and on weekends.”

In between bouts of education, Donna pumped gas and worked at a golf course, all the while fulfilling her role as a mother.

“I think I did well, because they’re such good kids,” she said.

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At age 54, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Her kids asked her what she wanted for graduation.

“I wanted three things: A limo, flowers and a party,” she said. “The limo came and loaded up all my family and I got them to stand in an alleyway next to where the steps came down from me getting my degree, and I got my flowers.

“The next day, my son had an open house party for me, I have such a wonderful family, you have no idea.”

Times got challenging when Donna went on to study gerontology and made a medication error.

“I’d asked the care aid if I had the right person and she said yes, so that person got meds she wasn’t supposed to get,” she said. “I was so choked, I called my instructor right away.”

Donna bought a camera and took pictures of the residents in her care and posted them in their rooms to ensure the mistake wouldn’t happen again.

She wrote a program about the initiative for other facilities to follow and travelled around the country doing seminars about it.

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At age 67, she earned a Masters in Adult Education and taught nursing students at Stenberg College in Kamloops until retiring at 73.

Donna is known in Kamloops for her time running the care facility Berwick on the Park for a decade, and sitting on the Chamber of Commerce where she helped in getting passports to be valid for ten years instead of five.

She has worked in care facilities and psychiatric units throughout the Okanagan and in Salmon Arm and Kamloops.

“My whole career was based on giving seniors the highest quality of life,” she said. “I’m all about positivity and happiness.”

She is planning for a medically-assisted death when her pain gets too much to handle.

“I was worried about my family, but the kids all looked at me and said for heaven's sake mom, we don’t want you to suffer, you do what you want to do.

“When I do use MAID, I want a party. I want people to celebrate my life and remember the good parts.”

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When asked what messages she wants to leave for her grandchildren, Donna said “when that door closes on them, whip that window wide open and jump through,” and “don’t be afraid to go back to school at any age and take the next step.”

She wants to be remembered for her positive attitude and the knowledge she has shared in the medical field.

“Mom will never be forgotten,” Denis said. “She has taught over 1,000 nurses and has many grandchildren and great grandchildren.”

“Mom taught us all that age is just a number and you are only as old as you feel. The only thing stopping you from being the best version of yourself is you.”

Donna has let go of most of her belongings to make her passing easier on her family.

“I have priorities, there isn’t a stitch of my clothes in this house anymore, anything I thought would be hard for them is gone,” she said. “They don’t have to deal with that, that brings me peace.”

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Her kids purchased a plot with a plaque for her along a walkway at Haney Park in Salmon Arm. Her savings are going toward the public swimming pool in Salmon Arm to help support kids.

When asked if she was afraid of death, Donna shook her head, no.

“I have no fear, I’ve had the most marvelous life anybody could have,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been unhappy with any portion of my life. Was some of it hard? Oh yeah, everybody’s got hard spots, but you live with the positive side and you just keep right on going.

“I’m probably one in a million that has had the great life I’ve had.”

— This article was corrected at 11:46 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 13, 2024 to show the subject lived in Sorrento instead of Sicamous. 

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