The Yellowknife Community Foundation (YKCF) announces the establishment of the Eva Henderson Memorial Fund, in memory of the late Eva Henderson. Eva passed away on January 17th, 2022.
The fund will be established to support health care professionals pursuing educational opportunities including palliative care.
Eva began her life of service on July 20, 1925 on a farmstead outside Edmonton, Alberta. She always had a cheery disposition and a welcoming smile and took the time to listen and give her full attention to all. She had the ability fully attend to every individual she encountered. Eva always knew she would be a nurse, later graduating from the Edmonton General Hospital and first registered in Alberta in 1948. Eva’s first few years were spent in remote areas of Alberta. After taking a break from nursing to raise a family, Eva returned to nursing in 1970 in Churchill, Manitoba before moving to Fort Smith and then to Yellowknife. She was a founding member of the NWT Nursing Association and was an honorary lifetime member of the Association. She worked at the Stanton Cottage Hospital and helped with the establishment of homecare services in Yellowknife. A true northern nurse, Eva managed to see much of the North doing medical escort duty and community nursing.
Eva blessed a multitude of people throughout her life with her gift of hospitality. Many of the nurses who came North to work stayed at Eva’s bed and breakfast and she was able to introduce them to the culture and ways of the Northern nursing experience. Many are still here and contributing to the furtherance of nursing. To know Eva was ‘’to feel at home,’’ safe, accepted and loved.
Eva ran the Henderson Bed and Breakfast in Yellowknife from 1985 to 2014. Her kitchen table was like a mini United Nations with people from all over the world sitting around enjoying Eva’s cooking and her husband Eric’s stories. Her moto for the bed and breakfast was “come as guests, leave as friends”. Her correspondence list would grow as she kept in touch with her ever expanding family.
Quote by Laurie Gault, Chair of the Yellowknife Community Foundation – “It is an honour for YKCF to establish the Eva Henderson Memorial Fund, to inspire and support healthcare professionals to build on Eva’s legacy”.
Quote by Audrey Henderson, daughter to Eva – “Eva had an innate ability to discern what was under the spoken words which gave insight beyond the nursing skills taught in a school. Eva would spend time at the bedside of the patient offering motherly comfort as well as medical expertise. People were her passion and she served them well.”
YKCF and its Board of Directors would like to extend our deepest condolences to the Henderson family.
Donations to the fund can be made through CanadaHelps.
The Yellowknife Community Foundation was formed in 1993 to provide interested individuals and organizations with a means of supporting projects in our community for the enduring future. The Foundation is not singularly dedicated to any specific area of support. It embodies a simple concept – that people working together can make a difference.
