Friday March 31, 2023 | SOOKE, BC [Updated April 5, 2023]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
For a mom who admits to exhausting herself daily as a way to forgo the full force of grief, Brooke Ervin made a powerful statement today in showing up for her daughter Hannah Day who passed away in May 2019.
As did many from around the Sooke community. Folks gathered at the small park in Sunriver now renamed as Hannah Day Playground, to support the mother who is on a journey that in many ways has no end.
But today was a milestone. Supporters were there to unveil both the sign and a child-size swing at the park.
Today’s brave statement by a mother in her community — just being there but also articulating the experience — was a punctuation mark for four years of containing her pain.
Now Ervin may be able to shed those tears that she’s held back. And every time a small child swings in the new small swing seat, that will spin off a bit of joy in the park where Hannah Day once loved to play.
A father’s memories:
Hannah’s father Robert Day was also at today’s event. He said that rather than spending time in the media spotlight he chose to spend as much time with Hannah as he could.
Robert and his daughter did “painting, crafts and lots of LEGO”, with the building blocks memory seeming to have stuck in the father’s memory as extra special.
A gathered crowd:
Presenting a day like today must be sensitive to the moment. The Sooke Lions provided hot dogs and refreshments, and first responders from Sooke Fire Rescue were on hand with their trucks.
The new sign for the park at 2368 Sunriver Way was unveiled by Sooke Mayor Maja Tait together with Hannah’s mom. Not sure if she would speak publicly, Brooke Ervin did ultimately open up to the crowd of about 100 people.
“I’ve done everything I can to give back. I burn myself out every day, doing everything I can for you guys and my family. And that is just so I don’t see what has happened. Over four years I just pretended it didn’t exist,” she said at the unveiling. The day evidently forced her to come to terms with the reality of her passage.
And afterward at the swing set, she said more, including the component of medical fault that evidently has not been formally addressed.
The girl who had a sunshine smile “touched the hearts of everyone in Sooke and beyond”, said Mayor Tait.
“Ah, beautiful!” someone called out as the sign was unveiled. “Ah, a sad day, Jesus,” another woman called out from the crowd. Big purple lettering on a wooden background with the image of a toy monkey was playful. Yellow tulips on this cool day of early spring were a nice touch below the sign.
The unwrapped swing:
“Where’s the proper swing for the little kids?” Hannah had apparently said years ago. Now it’s here.
A red ribbon was unwrapped from the swing, and the swing was set in motion to the sound of applause.
“You did a wonderful job,” Hannah’s mom Dalyce Ervin told her afterward.
Medical fault:
Today Hannah’s mom was able to firmly say that her daughter didn’t die of cancer, but by medical decisions. The cancer was one thing, but medication to help it caused the emergence of leukemia, and the chemotherapy wiped out her immune system.
Brooke Ervin did express her concerns to the doctors, saying she was devastated at them giving a child something knowing that the risk is a secondary cancer. “The side effect of what you are trying to treat is actually what you get,” she said, even recognizing the same impact for her in taking anti-depressants which she says ‘are killing her’.
“I would love to be able to live in a world in a day where drugs are safe. That you take them and they will help you.” She added: “The treatment was always going to be worse than the cancer itself.”
“The media and everybody portrayed that she died of cancer, when in fact it was the treatment that caused heart failure, her body was wiped so badly by the chemotherapy that it put her into septic shock that she had no ability to fight,” said Brooke Ervin, who was 20 years old at the time all this was happening.
Her life changed in a moment. “We spent three years. You don’t have time to save or to plan. Your life is completely changed.” When Hannah’s parents were about to register Hannah for preschool at age three “the doctors called us to tell us they had made a horrible mistake”, saying the drug they’d given Hannah had caused another cancer. Their daughter relapsed five or six times before they sought the stem cell donor.
The medical journey:
Hannah underwent seven years of intense treatment. In 2012, at age three, she was originally diagnosed with a rare cancer that attacks muscle tissue. Sixteen months later, she was free of the original cancer. However in December 2013, she was diagnosed with leukemia, which today her mother firmly stated was caused by the treatment (as admitted by doctors at the time).
Hannah’s doctors and her family turned to the community to try and find a stem cell donor. Thousands lined up at stem cell swab drives and registered as stem cell donors, hoping to be the rare match. In March 2014, Hannah received stem cells from her mother (only half a match). Hannah survived, but a year later was diagnosed again with leukemia in May 2015.
Meanwhile, Hannah’s mom became her stem cell donor. Being only a half-match, Hannah’s body rejected her mother’s stem cells, and ended up suffering second and third-degree burns to 80 percent of her body in something called a graft-versus-host disease (GvHD); GvHD happens when particular types of white blood cell (T cells) in the donated stem cells or bone marrow attack the recipient’s body cells. “It was a new experiment that they thought a mother would be able to save her child,” said Ervin. “It worked to some extent,” she said, but by that time Hannah had battled three different cancers.
She started off with rhabdomyo sarcoma cancer, which then turned into chemo-induced ALL leukemia which she developed from a chemotherapy drug. Then she relapsed with brain cancer (discovered upon having excruciating headaches). She was first taken to Victoria General Hospital then airlifted to BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. On Mother’s Day she lost her life.
“Every obstacle she fought so hard. Against odds she was still here. But this time they gave her too much chemotherapy. It wiped her immune system further than they ever expected, allowing a bacterial infection to take over. Hannah didn’t stand a chance,” said Brooke Ervin back in 2019.
The infection sent Hannah into septic shock. Hannah’s parents made the difficult decision to say goodbye.
Sooke community support:
Hannah was a Sunriver resident most of her life. The Sooke community rallied together for Hannah and her family. Back then, and up to today.
“Hannah made an impact,” said Mayor Tait, in her opening remarks to say she was grateful to “share this moment with you in celebration of Hannah Day”.
“Her smile and story brought thousands of people together, inspiring them all to register as stem cell donors. And how she brought thousands of people together is how she made such a difference in everyone’s lives. The impact of the then four-year-old child.”
“We’re honoured to continue Hannah’s legacy”, said Tait, who described Hannah as a girl “who brought people together and inspired generations”. She was “kind and curious, loving and humorous”.
Sooke RCMP Staff Sergeant Kevin Shaw was on hand for the playground sign unveiling, who had seen Brooke Ervin’s involvement with Cops for Cancer to help raise funds for pediatric cancer research.
BC Ambulance Services were acknowledged by the mayor, as well as the news media who she said have covered Hannah’s story and thereby supported the family, the Sooke community and to help people “recognize the inspiring child who brings us here together”.
Family impact:
In 2019, Hannah left behind two sisters — at the time Hailey was 7 years old (now 11) and sister Harper was age one (now five years old). Their mom still holds them tight, afraid to lose either one of them too.
“Hailey was born trying to save Hannah. We needed a stem cell donor for Hannah.” But that didn’t pan out.
Ervin’s grief has been very public, and Robert Day’s fairly private. Hannah’s mom says the medical system “has reached out” to provide trauma support for her but she doesn’t want to “have to sit in a room and talk about it”. She cried when Hannah died, and not since, until today. “I hope after today I can learn to move on and live with it.”
A new day now follows. While words on a sign are just that, it was the gathering of community once again today that might help everyone involved turn a new leaf.
Unique Sooke community, says Mayor Tait:
Renaming the playground is part of the District of Sooke’s place-naming project, explained Mayor Tait. The playground was previously just known as the Sunriver Tot Lot, installed in the early days of the Sunriver development over 15 years ago. The new name “is a natural fit” for a child who played in the neighbourhood. The colour and the monkey are in remembrance of Hannah’s favourite things.
Tait leads a fairly cohesive council with most of the same councillors re-elected in the October 2022 election. There’s a sense of community maturity emerging in Sooke, now with a mayor nine-years-in.
Tait noted that the wider community attended today, not just the folks in Sunriver. She felt the tone and activity of the event was respectful.
“We always find our made-in-Sooke solution which isn’t quite the square peg in the square hole. It’s what’s unique to us. It’s always finding ways to recognize the strength in people, and the strong sense of people, helping hands, the volunteer support, and recognizing the land and connection to the ocean to the river… rainforest meeting sea. It’s the kindness of people that really makes Sooke stand out,” said Sooke’s mayor.
Community kindness:
It was “random strangers” who showed kindness to Hannah’s mom, and this has been impactful for Ervin who had Hannah when she was quite young. “We were eating hospital food. We had absolutely nothing. If it wasn’t for the community we would have lost everything,” said Brooke Ervin to media today.
The community was there when she was diagnosed, they were there during, and they were there after. When she died I felt no purpose. I lost the one person who loved me the most. “To do a good deed every single day helps me grieve,” said Brooke Ervin, who explained that as being part of her process.
Sooke is unique as a community. “I don’t think this would happen anywhere else,” said Hannah’s mom. Her initial urge to move away and start fresh was assuaged by the kindness around her. “It’s such a small community where everybody knows everybody. The thought of leaving is just impossible. To have a park now named after our family just assures that I am in the right community. Everything I have done to help everybody was the right thing,” she told Island Social Trends today. “It just keeps paying itself forward.”
She says the sign unveiling today helps her reach a positive point in her journey. “From now on I can accept and move forward with my life.”
Attending today:
In addition to folks from around the Sooke community, attending at the park today were District of Sooke Councillors Jeff Bateman, Al Beddows, and Tony St-Pierre. The new deputy fire chief Wayne Kennedy attended, saying his small-town upbringing in Trail is a good fit for serving the community in a small but growing town like Sooke. Also there today was Sooke Region Communities Health Network president Mary Dunn, and Marlene Barry.
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
Island Social Trends is a professional news portal at islandsocialtrends.ca . Fully online since mid-2020, Island Social Trends emerged from the extensive groundwork of previous print publications in the west shore: MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), and West Shore Voice News (2014-2020).
Since 2008, journalist and editor Mary P Brooke has taken a socioeconomic lens to news analysis about the west shore and south Vancouver Island region, including BC provincial news, and national news impacts.
Ms Brooke has been covering news of School District 62 (SD62) at the board and committee level, including attending nearly all of their meetings since 2014. Mary P Brooke was a school trustee candidate (SD62 Belmont Zone – Langford, Colwood, Metchosin and Highlands) in the October 2022 election, as a service to community.
The Island Social Trends Journalism Program offers the opportunity for high school students on Vancouver Island to learn journalism by preparing and submitting articles in a real world context.