A lifetime of making a difference
Lorraine Hearn’s legacy lives on in countless people, communities
Awoman whose determination led to many positive outcomes for individuals, families and communities will be remembered for her love, dedication and great sense of humour.
Lorraine Hearn, one of the founders of Status of Women Central (SOWC) and Violence Prevention South and Central (VPSC) has passed away. Hearn died on Jan. 6.
Hearn devoted her life to anti-violence and gender equality and blazed the trail for activism and advocacy across the province.
Her friend Jackie Thompson, the Status of Women Central executive director, says they began working closely together more than a decade ago when the VPSC office, where Hearn was executive director, and SOWC office were close together on Hardy Avenue in Grand FallsWindsor.
“The first time I had a client come in, I went into panic mode. I called Lorraine and she came up and looked after everything,” Thompson says.
“She had all the life skills and all the experience dealing with women coming out of abusive situations. She was my mentor, my guru, my buddy, my friend.”
Thompson quoted one of the SOWC founding members, Dorothy Fewer.
“Lorraine holds a special place in our hearts … Today Lorraine's legacy survives with strength and dedication to carry her goal of improving the lives of women and victims of violence.”
Hearn worked at VPSC but always served on the board of the SOWC.
“She had a real passion to help people,” Thompson says. “She knew … how to sit and talk to them and empower them so they want to go on.”
Thompson says she travelled across the province with Hearn.
“She would speak to government officials just like you and I are speaking here, no holes bared, held nothing back …,” Thompson says, adding she was praised in the House on numerous occasions for her work.
“At times, her heart was too big, but there was no stopping her when she took up a cause,” Thompson adds.
Hearn served on many boards such as Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women, cervical screening, Central Housing and Homelessness Network, Cara Transition House, and Status of Women Central.
In her role at VPSC she partnered with SOWC to commemorate Take Back the Night, Sexual Assault Awareness Week, Violence Prevention Awareness Week, missing and murdered Indigenous women, women in leadership, and she personally contacted many of the families of the victims of the Montreal massacre.
She organized numerous empowerment conferences and International Women's Day events and helped implement the Status of Women bursary to empower women in post-secondary studies, a bursary which will be named the Lorraine Hearn Memorial Bursary.
Hearn dreamt of a house for women who were coming out of abusive situations. She worked diligently on this while she was executive director at VPSC and in recent years when it came to fruition it was called Hearn Haven in her honour.
LOVE AND LAUGHS
Hearn loved life, fun and laughter and could swear like a trooper.
Hearn's love stretched far and wide, however, the focal point of her life was her family and the love she had for them was insurmountable.
Her granddaughter Reagan Ryan, who lovingly called Hearn ‘Gam,' says she was her favourite person.
“Everyone used to say, ‘I can't believe you're not her kid' because I'm so much like her,” Ryan says. “It was and is the best compliment I will ever receive. To be compared to such an incredibly strong, resilient, caring, intelligent, and beautiful woman is an honour I will always hold on to.”
Ryan says her Gam was always there for her and gave the best advice.
“She's my role model … She loved her work and cared for the people she helped. She also loved her family deeply and more than anything else. I'm so proud to be her granddaughter and I'm so lucky I got to know her as well as
I did, because she was the most beautiful person. Now she’s the most beautiful angel and I will never stop telling people about how incredible she was.”
Hearn’s daughter, Carrie Grimes, says her relationship with her mother was special.
“My hero has always been, and will always be, my precious, beautiful mother,” Grimes says. “She not only endured a tremendous amount of suffering and abuse in order to protect my brother and I until she was able to escape with us, but she also saved our lives on several occasions even after we escaped … She was (also) helping victims and their families break free and start new lives. She was becoming other peoples’ hero, too.”
Grimes says her mom was extraordinary.
“She taught me to treat others with love and kindness, that violence of any form was not acceptable nor tolerated, to stand up for those who needed it and be there to help them through,” Grimes says.
“The love, respect, appreciation, adoration and gratitude for this amazing woman, the pride beyond for this woman, and the extreme intense heartbreak of losing this woman of who I am so very privileged to call my mother, my best friend and my hero. That was who Lorraine Hearn was to me and I can never justly or fully describe in words how deeply she affected or influenced my life.”