A rose without thorns
by Giancarlo La Giorgia
Visiting a hospital is not usually something to look forward to — unless you happen to pop into the gift shop at Mount Sinai Hospital and Rosebel Turner is behind the counter. The vivacious, 79-years-young lifelong volunteer is always ready to help visitors find just what they need when checking in on a sick loved one: a big smile.
“People have to care about people. If people cared about others, even strangers, we wouldn’t have all the problems we have in the world,” said Turner during an interview in her Hampstead apartment.
Turner began lending a hand at the hospital six years ago, not long after her late-husband, Sam, was admitted as a patient. In the past, she has volunteered for B’nai B’rith, the Salvation Army, Meals on Wheels and a host of other organizations, but her connection to do-gooding stretches back to before she was even born.
“[Growing up], there was a great deal of value on the notion that you always did what you could for others. It didn’t matter to my father who you were; he would look after you. He had a supermarket on St. Hubert Street near a church, and whenever someone needed anything, they came to see him,” she said – noting her family was Jewish.
Turner grew up at a time when religious and linguistic communities were more insular, but you’d never know it from her recollections. “As a matter of fact, one of my father’s closest friends was a French-Canadian police detective,” she said, remembering the time when, at age eight, this same family friend introduced Turner to a fellow volunteer.
On hearing that Turner’s mother was suffering from arthritis, the policeman insisted she go see his uncle, a priest at St. Joseph’s Oratory. “So we got in the car and who do we go meet but Brother André himself!” she said. She remembers how the future Saint laid his hands over her mother’s and kept asking how she felt. “Wouldn’t you know it, she felt better. When we left, he gave my mother holy oil to rub on her joints and a medallion,” Turner said wistfully. She wishes she still had the medallion.
Turner started volunteering in 1944, when she was a 17-year-old art student at the former Sir George Williams College. Since it was wartime, she decided to put her artistic talents to work and spent whatever time she could after classes painting posters at the nearby Canadian Military Centre. “On Saturdays, they had performances to entertain the servicemen, so every week, some other girls and I would paint advertisements,” she said. It was the first small step in her lifelong journey as a volunteer, and as luck would have it, it’s how she met the man who would travel alongside her.
“One weekend I ended up replacing the girl who announced the acts – even though you had to be 18 to hostess, and I was still under-age. But that’s how I met my husband, an airman recovering from an appendix removal who just happened to be in the audience,” she recalled with a chuckle.
The Turners were married a year later and, when the war ended, Rosebel began volunteering for B’nai B’rith. Her three children were born soon after and, though busy caring for her family, she kept active in the organization by phoning from home. In 1955, she designed the cover of “Women’s Work,” which announced activities of the Montreal chapter’s affiliated organizations, like Hillel. Turner proudly noted that a copy of the booklet can be found at the National Archives in Ottawa.
Art is the other driving force in Turner’s life, evidenced by the many paintings on the walls of her apartment, most of which she painted herself.
She is perhaps proudest that she passed her artistic talents on to her children and grandchildren, who have contributed a good share of the decorations that adorn her home. Although each has a unique subject and style, the vibrancy of their artwork provides a unifying motif. Of course, this isn’t surprising: considering their teacher, it’s no wonder that when they paint the world around them, they use the brightest colours.
