RMH

Sawyer's mom shares the impact of Ronald McDonald House Toronto on her family during a frightening and stressful time.

“Without the House, we would have had to stay in a hotel, which we did the first two nights while Sawyer was in the Cardiac Critical Care Unit (CCCU). We stayed close to the hospital as I was released only 18 hours after giving birth to him. We wanted to be within a short walking distance to SickKids. The hotel bill would have quickly ‘broke the bank’ and we would have been sleeping in the waiting room at the hospital.

Having RMH Toronto for my husband and I to stay at meant more than I have words for. It gave us a warm, inviting place to get some sleep, have a shower and recharge in privacy, before heading back to spend the day pacing in the CCCU at the hospital. It was, for sure, our ‘home away from home’.

The second time Sawyer was in SickKids, it was mostly me that stayed at the House. And it meant that I had a safe place to head to at the end of each long day, somewhere familiar that felt like home, a place full of other parents who understood what I was going through.”