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LETTER: Have an interest in medicine or history? Join the Langley hospital’s heritage committee

Public invited to be part of a community-based group
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Back in 2017, retired RN Doris Riedweg showed a reusable glass syringe that is on display at the Langley Memorial Hospital Archives in Michaud House. (Heather Colpitts/Langley Advance Times)

In 1993, the Heritage Committee was formed with the purpose of publishing The Hospital on The Hill, a compendium packed with information about the doctors, nurses and staff who had walked the corridors of Langley Memorial Hospital over its 50 years of existence.

There were 15 initial members including the founders, Iris Mooney and Grace Carter. Among the others were Val Dirks, Shirley McGonigal and Gloria Mout, and Doris Riedweg who was responsible for editing The Hospital on The Hill.

The committee later transitioned into the LMH Archival Museum Committee. In 2016, when the committee began a search for place to house the medical memorabilia, the Langley Heritage Society stepped up and offered the parlour of Michaud House, itself a heritage building at the foot of 204th Street, in the City of Langley.

Michaud House itself is rich with history, having been built in 1882. It is packed with 100s of pieces of memorabilia, all donated by former employees and their families, and people in the community. The pieces include nurses’ uniforms and caps, a wooden reclining wheelchair, letters, photographs, and instruments that today might look positively intimidating to lay people.

The committee raises money for the Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation, and holds a spring tea every year, and a wine and cheese reception in the autumn. Donations are dropped into a stainless steel bedpan. We view our treasures seriously, although at our recent wine and cheese reception, two of our committee members, who both worked as nurses, discovered how useful an old enema can could be as a vase.

Today’s committee members include Dr. Elaine Mah, and former nurses Doris Riedweg, Norma Leith, Bev Brown and Linda Goranko, as well as Marcy Court, a former LMH employee, and Natasha Jones. Tim Staunton of the LMH Foundation joined last year.

Over the past five years, our numbers have diminished as some have moved away, and we would very much like to recruit new members. Experience working in a hospital setting is not a requirement.

Anyone interested in joining the committee may contact Norma Leith at grandmacat2@gmail.com.

Doris Riedweg, Dr. Elaine Mah, Langley

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• READ MORE: Langley’s medical history preserved in museum in heritage home

• READ MORE: Tea and heritage go hand in hand at hospital museum fundraiser

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