« Back
Font Size:
Wrapped in warmth
Aug 18, 2007 By: Jillian Follert(Originally published Dec. 8, 2006)
OSHAWA -- It's hard to feel beautiful lying in a hospital bed.
Standing in the lobby of Lakeridge Health Oshawa, Shirley Bee gets teary as she talks about women fighting cancer and other illnesses and the toll it can take on their sense of self.
"We wanted to do something to help them feel beautiful again," she says.
That something is Beautiful Lady, a company recently launched by Ms. Bee and her friend, Rev. Holly Bruce. Together they sell satin bed jackets, cozy blankets and colourful head scarves to help lift the spirits of women in hospitals, nursing homes and hospices.
Rev. Bruce, who is a member of King Street Pentecostal Church and also runs her own ministry, created the designs and they are manufactured nearby in Scarborough.
"I want women to wrap these jackets or blankets around themselves and feel beautiful and blessed," she says.
In addition to helping patients, the project will also have an impact thousands of miles away in Africa. Rev. Bruce plans to use proceeds from the sale of Beautiful Lady products to fund a mission project in Uganda.
As part of her ministry work, she spent much of last year in the east African nation, specifically in a small village called Kasoga. The 1,000 people who live there have no source of water and face nearly constant draught.
"If I can help them drill a well it will change their lives," Rev. Bruce says. "They will be able to grow food, drink and bathe and use the water to make bricks so they can build a school and after that, a medical centre.
About $14,000 is needed to fund a return trip to Uganda and the supplies to drill a well. With $8,000 raised so far, Rev. Bruce hopes to return in January or February.
Thanks to a warm reception from the Auxiliary of Lakeridge Health Oshawa, Ms. Bee and Rev. Bruce will be selling Beautiful Lady products in the hospital lobby on Dec. 20 and 21 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
"They have so much passion," says Auxiliary Manager Robert Lefebvre. "A well, a school, who could say no to that?"
