Two Calgary men pay touching tribute to their late wives' legacies
Two Calgary men are honouring their late wives' legacy this Mother's Day in a very touching way.
Both of them lost their partners to cancer, but they're working hard to make sure that their legacies live on.
Will Morlidge and Don Wood are bonded for life. Tragedy brought them together, when Morlidge lost his wife Rebecca to cancer in 2017, while Wood's wife Sherry died in 2020 of the same thing.
"First and foremost, it's dealing with the shock," said Wood, from the still-under-construction Calgary Cancer Centre. "I had a young son at that time. He would have been 11 at the time."
Morlidge said his wife didn't stop living once she got diagnosed with cancer.
"It was just something my wife had," he said. "But it didn't really stop us in anything. We did anything. We went anywhere."
But even after their passing, their memory lives on through a building.
"It was her goal to see this come to life," said Wood, "and to see especially the research piece and everybody housed all in one building."
But the Calgary Cancer Centre has a deeper meaning. As volunteers with the facility's patient and family advisory council, Morlidge and Wood provided input on the design and the services going into the facility.
Rebecca, it turns out, was one of the original founders of the volunteer group.
"I think the legacy for Rebecca is going to be not the fact that she advocated for her own health care, but the fact that she advocated for everyone's health care," Morlidge said.
Honouring the legacy of their wives hasn't been the only aspect of the duo's healing journey. So has giving their time to a building that will go on to help others.
"It's been kind of a calling, so to speak," Wood said. "So it's passionate and it makes you feel young again, and it makes you keep those happy memories.
"When I'm here," he said, "I have only happy memories."
The Calgary Cancer Centre will open in late 2023.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Pilot reported fire onboard plane carrying fuel, attempted to return to Fairbanks just before crash
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
7 surveillance videos linked to extortions of South Asian home builders in Edmonton released
The Edmonton Police Service has released a number of surveillance videos related to a series of extortion cases in the city now dubbed 'Project Gaslight.'