It’s 8:30 a.m. on a Wednesday and the day’s clientele are being dropped off at Ottawa West Community Support — a community centre on Wellington Street. Elderly men and women with dementia, speech impairments and physical disabilities that put them in wheelchairs file in.
The lobby fills with clients who may not have seen each other since the previous week, with conversations consisting of the upcoming snowstorm to the Ottawa Redblacks upcoming playoff game. Down the lengthy corridor from the lobby and removed from the conversations, Marlyn McNeely continues her early day in the kitchen after storing away freshly baked pies and cookies. She’s already been preparing today’s meals for the last half an hour, with more cooking and baking to be done.
McNeely herself has lived in the neighbourhood for over 70 years, but you wouldn’t know it by how quickly she moves pastries around the kitchen or by her cheerful attitude as she greets anyone and everyone who walks into the kitchen.
“We’ve got a pretty busy day today,” McNeely says smiling behind her apron, defiant of any stress.
While some clients live alone, there are some who live with family members who aren’t able to take care of them during the day. This leads to them attending the day program at Ottawa West Community Support, where they are taken care of by the staff and fed by McNeely.
McNeely looks down the corridor to the group of clients gathering, and remarks that while food isn’t the main reason people come to Ottawa West Community Support, “food is a connecting thing that brings people together.”
Ottawa West Community Support is one of the few organizations that seniors can go to in Hintonburg as the area becomes more gentrified and geared towards younger families. McNeely sees this change and wants to make sure seniors do not feel isolated and forgotten.
For that reason alone, she shows up to Ottawa West Community Support with the goal of filling stomachs and putting smiles on faces. Most of the staff is younger than McNeely, but even after coming out of retirement 18 years ago, she feels young enough to make a difference in the lives of each client she feeds.
McNeely’s meals are bringing lonely seniors in the area together, breaking down social barriers and uniting in similar situations. According to her, there aren’t a lot of accessible activities for seniors to enjoy in Hintonburg and that something as small as a place to share meals is integral.
The meals remind McNeely of when she was younger and how dinners served as social gatherings for herself and her family.
“A lot of the women [both volunteers and some clients] like to do the dishes because that’s how we got our news back in the day,” McNeely says, looking out the window.
Meanwhile, she says, the men would smoke cigars while they washed.
Today the men at the community centre have traded their cigars for playing cards, music, and regular conversation.
Many of those who come to Ottawa West Community Support are isolated in their daily lives because they are either impaired by a disability or live far away from family members.
Most of the program’s seniors are from Hintonburg-Mechanicsville, where 51 per cent of seniors live alone. That is 25 per cent more than the average community in Ottawa, according to Ottawa Neighbourhood Study, a research tool developed by members of Statistics Canada and Ottawa Public Health.
LOCAL ROOTS
When McNeely retired in 2000, her main concern was taking care of her mother. It was at this moment when she realized there was a need to help seniors in Hintonburg.
A year later, her mother passed away.
“When my mother passed on, I thought that I better do something,” McNeely says.
“That’s when I started with homecare.”
McNeely has spent her entire life in Hintonburg, which is one of the main reasons why she works in the Ottawa West Community Support kitchen.
She attended Connaught Public School, Devonshire Public School, and Fisher Park High School all while growing up in the house that her grandfather built in the early 1900s. If one thing is evident, it’s that McNeely is extremely proud of her family, especially as she brags how her father and grandfather have built extremely durable homes during their lifetimes.
INSTANT POPULARITY
Even if she’s only there three days a week, McNeely’s work is felt by many.
“Marlyn’s got a heart of gold, and the clients love and appreciate her,” says Amy Bevilacqua, the senior manager of operations and programs, who has been working at Ottawa Community Support for the last 15 years.
Bevilacqua describes McNeely as a “huge asset” to the program. She says that, while her food is a good starting point, what makes McNeely beloved is her relatability.
“I think the clients react differently to her than they would if a 20-year-old was taking care of them,” she says.
“The similarities in age mean she comes across more as a friend more than anything.”
McNeely loves to talk to the seniors, whether they’re people she’s never met or those that she’s known for awhile.
“One of the clients here was actually someone that graduated in the same year as me from Fisher Park. I didn’t know them then, but now he lives a street over from me,” McNeely says.
The demand for McNeely’s warmth and kindness earned a paid position where she worked six days a week.
“I almost feel guilty about being paid to do what I love,” McNeely says with a blush.
Today she comes in from Monday to Wednesday to help cook and distribute food.
A WIDE MENU AND AUDIENCE
One thing that excites McNeely about cooking at Ottawa West Community Support is ever-changing menu.
“The menu varies, and we often get to make things that none of us got to eat growing up, like spaghetti and pizza,” McNeely explains with child-like joy. “It’s such a treat!”
While some seniors have a tough time eating food that they aren’t used it, some of them come around just to enjoy trying something new.
For the last 15 years, a lot of the food that is cooked and prepared is provided by Peter Seltenreich and TimeSaver Foods, a service in Ottawa committed to selling easy meals to those who need it.
“They are such great people and wonderful support to the community,” Seltenreich says about McNeely and her co-workers.
Most of the food stays at the centre, but some of what McNeely makes is sent to clients on the outskirts of Ottawa.
Ottawa West Community Support used to send food only to people as far as Woodroffe Avenue, but now meals are reaching those as far as Fitzroy Harbour.
“Something as small as a meal or even a phone call makes their day, and helps them feel more social,” McNeely says as she gets up from her seat to finish setting the table for today’s lunch — a surprise that she wasn’t willing to reveal.
“There will be pie and cookies, though,” McNeely assures with a smirk as she disappears into the sea of familiar faces who may need her help and—more importantly— a friend.
