‘Ottawa’ CHEO’s ‘Baby Whisperer’ Named Volunteer of The Year
Mary Grainger is known around the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario as the “baby whisperer.”
She’s been cuddling babies at the hospital’s intensive care and in-patient units for 40 years and was named CHEO’s Volunteer of the Year at a ceremony this week.
“It’s so wonderful to be given an award for something that I absolutely love doing,” she says. “Without this, I’d be lost.”
Tubes, machines and serious illness can make the hospital a scary place for both babies and new parents. Grainger tries to bring light into the dark times families can experience at CHEO.
“We see some children that haven’t been dealt the best hand in life,” she says. “But they deserve as much love and enjoyment out of the life that they have.”
Grainger has a gift that allows her to calm babies, when parents can’t, and she’s been called “nana” by some of the nurses at CHEO. Grainger has comforted thousands and thousands of babies over the years, and to her they’re all spe