Editor’s note: Shortly after this story was written, Francesca Creet passed away peacefully. She was proud to share her words and approved this piece before her passing. Providence Care is honoured to celebrate her life and memory by sharing her story.
For the last 20 years, 75-year-old Kingston resident Francesca Creet has bravely battled oral cancer. Now, a palliative patient at Providence Care Hospital, she is living a “dream for a day” and having the spa come to her hospital room for a manicure, pedicure and facial.
“This is a way for me to feel good instead of horrible,” Francesca explains. “Everything that brings me joy seems to have been taken away from me because of the cancer, so having this spa day means so much. It’s something special just for me and it really makes me feel cared for.”
Making this dream come true was a joint effort, and it started with Providence Care inpatient social worker Leila Malone.
“A social worker’s job is to meet a person where they’re at,” explains Leila. “Psychosocial support in palliative care is holistic and means helping people with whatever they feel they need help with. That’s different for everybody. Francesca let me know it was important for her to spend her time doing things that help her feel good in her skin, and she was particularly keen on a spa day, so that’s what we’ve been focusing on together. I reached out to Oneday Dreams Organization and asked if they could help.”
Oneday Dreams is a fully registered charity serving Canadian adults living with a terminal illness. They facilitate end-of-life dreams like meeting musicians and athletes, weekend getaways with loved ones, vow renewals, sporting events and family parties. They focus on experiences that offer joy, inspiration, and comfort.
“OneDay Dreams is driven by fundraising and donations, and it is made up of a team of volunteers like myself,” explains retired nurse and Francesca’s dream coordinator Denise Theos. “To be able to fulfill dreams for those nearing the end of life is a great privilege.”
For Francesca’s spa daydream, Denise made it a reality thanks to local Kingston business Glo On The Go Aesthetics. Business owner Jennifer Seymour arrived at Francesca’s hospital room with her employees, a massage table and carts of supplies. She says it was an “immediate yes” when Oneday Dreams reached out with the spa day ask.
“I cried when I got the call,” explains Jennifer. “I have a personal attachment to this place [Providence Care Hospital] because my mom spent time here a few years ago. I grew up in Kingston and moved back because my parents are aging. It’s my passion to bring services like this to people in their own space and make them feel good. We’re all so honoured to be here today.”
Francesca says she’s been putting an emphasis on feeling good over the past few months. The spa day fits nicely into that effort, but outside this special day, she also finds joy in the brightly coloured clothes she wears, which she proudly explains are all thrift store treasures, as well as through gardening. With the help of Providence Care occupational and physiotherapy assistant Lacy Sands, Francesa has turned the patio balcony off of her hospital unit into a flower oasis.
“I wanted to do some gardening, and I coordinated with Lacey so we could work on the empty garden bed. I gave her a list of some of my favourite flowers and colours, and she came back with it all, and I just took it from there. I’m out there almost every day. It makes me feel peaceful.”
Lacey used the time with Francesca as occupational therapy and says she learned a lot about gardening and was able to involve other patients in watering and enjoying the flowers.
“It was very rewarding and joyful to help Francesca bring her vision to life,” explains Lacey. “She had mentioned her love for gardening and how she enjoyed putting her hands right into the soil instead of using gloves. I decided to take this on and use this time as an occupational therapy activity with Francesca. It was heartwarming to see and feel her passion for the garden and see the joy it brought everyone on the unit.”
The garden bed is full of begonias, geraniums, and moss rose, along with a few impatiens and even a transplanted sunflower from another area of the patio.
“If you peel the wilted flower off the plant gently, you can usually see another bud right underneath it,” explains Francesca as she examines the flowers and picks off a wilted yellow moss rose bloom. “I’m usually out here for hours doing this.”
Not every day is a good one, says Francesca, but the good days outnumber the bad. What means the most to her about her time with the Providence Care palliative care team is the way staff never stop showing up with compassion, creativity, and kindness, always going above and beyond to bring joy into her days.
“It’s just so nice to see a group of people who are just so keen to make somebody feel good, who are, you know, obviously experiencing a really rough time.”
And while Francesca’s spa day has left her with polished nails and glowing skin, she jokes she’ll just have to be extra careful in the garden now to keep those freshly manicured nails looking their best.
Providence Care is grateful to have been part of Francesca’s journey and to share her story, which we hope inspires others to cherish life’s small joys and the people who make them meaningful.
0 thoughts on “Making every moment count with comfort, care, and wishes made real”
I met Frankie when we both worked at Douglas Library at Queen’s University. She was a dear friend for 50 years and even, for a few months, lived in a cottage my husband and I owned on Pender Island, BC. She was always a colourful, fun, creative and loving person. Although I had not seen her in many years, we kept in touch through emails and, yes, even real written letters. She had a rough go of it for a long time, yet she always managed to find the good things in life. Her legacy at Providence Care, the garden, will, I hope, be there for a long time. I’ll miss knowing she is in my life, and I cherish the little glass lion she had sent to me when she knew she was dying, that and all the letters I had written to her over that 50 year period. What an amazing person she was. Thank you for your care of my dear friend. I’ll be making a donation in her honour in December.
I moved away from Kingston 5 years ago and still miss it terribly. I got a text yesterday telling me about my friend Frankie. I have hanging in my apartment a photo Frankie took of pansies. She gave it to me as a birthday present. Such a brave woman. Made the best of life, enjoying going out for a meal, gardening, photography, being a good friend, many things. I was really glad to read about her experiences at Providence. Thank you for making her final time on earth as pleasant as possible.
I first met Frankie in Kingston in the 1970s and we were friends off and on in the years when our lives moved in different directions and we lived in different places. I have so many memories of her and still remember so many of our conversations. When I retired in 2012 and moved back to Kingston from Toronto, we got back together again, which was when I first discovered that she had been and still was ill, but in remission. I was glad to be able to take her to her beloved farm house near Westport three or four times in one summer. I lost touch with her, then spoke with her by phone briefly and we were to get in touch again. But we didn’t. I was shocked when I checked her Facebook account recently and found the messages there of her death from her siblings. I took the photograph she had taken of a Kingston patio she knew I loved and have it framed and on my wall. I would willingly donate to have the patio flower bed be named in honour of Frankie.