Read time: 2 min
Nancy Perrier Forget is the Communications Director at Palliacco. After 10 years as a dedicated employee, she gives us a vibrant testimony of the important lessons she has learned.
“You’ll see …it’s not just a job, it’s a truly inner voyage you will undertake during your time at Palliacco.”
I have been offering these words to each new colleague for the past 10 years … as a profoundly genuine promise.
Ten years of learning how to Be, not just to Do. To slow down, in a world constantly pushing us to go faster.
To listen to others… and to listen to myself.
To take my place and learn to be confident, one step at a time.
Ten years of working alongside the incredibly good-hearted volunteers, clients and colleagues, who transformed me well beyond my professional role.
Because here, it is not just a job…it’s a school of life. A continuous, compassionate and sometimes life-changing education.
Ten years of daring to name what may upset us.
To start the conversations we too often avoid: about sickness, end-of-life accompaniment, grief.
Realities that are frightening… that we sometimes prefer not to discuss.
And yet…
Herein lies the beauty of Palliacco: bringing light where there are shadows, offering kindness and listening amidst suffering, and remembering each day, that even in the most fragile moments, life is profoundly present.
Inspired by the “Jeans ” … and by Others
Over my 10 years at Palliacco, certain people made an indelible mark on my journey.
There is Jean Desnoyers, our previous Executive Director.
He took me under his wing and taught me much more than the administration of a non-profit organization. He gave me something much more precious: his trust.
He took me by the hand, gave me my chance in communications …and he believed in me, long before I was able to do so myself.
And then there is Jean Sauvé.
A man with a very big heart, and a gentle, almost paternal presence.
With few words, he taught me simply to be, in the here and now…just by being there at my side.
Not forgetting Marlène—a real fairy god-mother for me over the past 10 years.
A source of inspiration by her manner of listening, her presence, her common sense and her unique way of savouring life … all the while making every person she meets feel important.
At Palliacco, every person –employee or volunteer—inspires and touches the others in their own unique way.
And Now?
I’m not the same woman I was when I started. Today, I find that “Being” is gently taking precedence over “Doing”.
Over the years I have acquired a rich and precious knowledge set helping me along the road of life … by being a little more grounded, a little more aware.
By working in an organization that provides palliative care at home, respite and support to people with cancer, to care-givers and to those in mourning, I have become profoundly aware of the fragility of life.
But mostly…of its beauty.
A person’s capacity for adaptation is remarkable.
Even in the darkest moments, a light—regardless of how faint …. always manages to appear.
And perhaps this is essentially what Palliacco has taught me: to recognize that light…even when it flickers.