Halifax nurse makes scrub quilts for nurses in Fort Mac

Halifax nurse Marjorie Neill couldn't stop thinking about the nurses in Fort McMurray, while watching the devastating news from Nova Scotia.

"I thought how did they get those patients out? What's the stories that they must have to tell?" said Neill, who's been a nurse for nearly 30 years.

"Who was looking after their families while they were at work trying to evacuate all these people?" she asked.

Neill has taken it into her own hands to do something special for the "sisterhood of nurses" by making quilts out of gently used scrubs and uniforms.

Bags of uniforms

It's something Neill's done before, out of her own uniforms, for friends back home in Ontario who were having medical procedures done. 

"I thought it might help them get better faster and they loved them," she said. 

Neill thought the same could work for the nurses of Fort Mac.

"It really took off when I asked the girls at work and they brought in bagfuls of uniforms, so it didn't take long," said Neill, who works for the Nova Scotia Health Authority and Dalhousie Family Medicine.

'We're all linked heart to heart'

The spare bedroom of Neill's apartment has turned into a mini factory, with her sewing machine and bags of clothes.

The lap-sized blankets will have flowers and stripes and even cartoons (thanks to the pediatric nurses). Each one will share something in common: a strip of Nova Scotia tartan.   

Neill's calling her works ComFORT Quilts: The Tie That Binds. Their labels will include a poem written by a patient:

Nova Scotia beams its love

Across the miles to you,

With hopes for health and happiness

And peace and solace too

The miles between are many

That keep us far apart

Yet we are one, beneath the sun

We're all linked heart to heart

So Nova Scotian nurses

Have crafted quilts for you

With goodwill sewn in every stitch,

To warm your hearts anew!

'I'd love to hear their stories'

So far, Neill's made five, but she hopes to make 95 more by this time next year.

The Fort Mac devastation happened around the time of National Nurses Week, which ran May 6-12.

Neill is hoping to bring her hundred blankets to Fort Mac during the same week next year.

"I'd love to hear their stories actually," Neill said. "I'd wanna listen."

The scrubs have storied pasts of their own. 

"You're wearing them when people are at their best or when they're at their lowest," Neill said."Advocating for them, you know, trying to make things go smoother than maybe they are."

These quilts will provide the type of comfort these nurses are used to giving.   

They'll also come at a good time, Neill said, as the nurses settle into new homes and  hospital settings. 

Helping hands 

Some blankets might get there sooner, if Neill gets some help.

She's looking for donations of gently used scrubs and uniforms, quilting supplies and help with the sewing.

She says it takes days to cut the collars, sleeves and hemlines to turn the clothing into blankets.

She's hoping other nurses will join her, or start their own groups.

Neill can be reached at marjorie.neill@nshealth.ca.