Time to confess.

I wasn't born in The County.

Made in The County – yes. When I suggested, as an adult, that I might have been an accident back in the days of no birth control and generally unplanned time gaps between kids, my Daddy quickly responded.

“You weren't an accident! You were a celebration! We had just paid off a piece of farm machinery!” I'm partial to saying it was the manure spreader – it makes for the best story. Quite the memory my late Daddy had. And I do love spreading real manure.

I was born in Belleville Hospital in 1951. Middle of January at 3:15 p.m. We lived on a dead end road in Hillier Township and both Trenton and the old Picton Hospital were closer. So why Belleville? It's a mystery. Nearly all our County babies are now born at Belleville General Hospital. We average about 150 per year. So all of them, and me, are in some sense settlers.

After 18 years as a 4-H farm kid, I became a settler in Toronto for university and my first job. Eight years later, we re-settled back in The County. That was never my plan until I retired, but my kids' Dad got a teaching contract and I landed a fulfilling management role at Prince Edward Heights. This centre for folks with developmental disabilities was state-of-the-art at the time. We settled into the staff housing, now known as Macaulay Village, along with many experienced care staff who relocated from other parts of Ontario including some originally from other parts of the world – Egypt, India, Barbados, Japan, Hungary, Yemen, etc. There was very limited accommodation to rent in the larger County at the time. The facility developers wisely provided for staff housing. Six hundred jobs came with the centre. Local folks, many in their 20's and 30's, also accessed the professional and para-professional training offered. It was a workplace of as many as three generations as years went by. Many of these folks are now located all over The County with their grown children also invested in the social and economic fabric.

After one year we found a home, the only home we could afford, outside of Milford. I only knew Milford as a place with a lighted ball diamond, since I played church league ball as a teen there. Neither of us knew about Little Bluff – a “cliff” in The County?! We were outsiders, new settlers. Most folks could pronounce my last name (Al -yay, in case you were wondering) but I was an unknown, even with Loyalist roots on all four family branches. The locals welcomed us and we became involved in the South Marysburgh happenings. I've now been in my home 46 years and have found lots of “cousins” at this end of The County!

There are other settler folks out here. They carry on the traditions and the work of the Milford Fair, the Recreation Committee, our churches, the Mirror, the Mummers' theatre group, the library, the Volunteer Fire Department, as well as the Hospital Auxiliary, Hospice, Community Care for Seniors, coaching, Rotary, 4-H, the Legions, the Learning Centre and environmental projects. The list goes on.

Whether here for 46 or 14 years, 4 years or 4 months – many of these settlers become valued contributors to our communities.

And they donate to our Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital.

As I read our great local media coverage, I am so grateful for the donors whose names I don't know. They're folks I want to get to know. Folks who understand the value of our current hospital and our new “state-of-the-art” hospital on its way.

Settlers – people who chose to come here. I am grateful for you. Thank you.

For information about our hospital, or to make a donation call 613-476-1008 ext. 4502, or visit the Foundation’s newly redesigned website at www.pecmhf.ca.