Couple bequeaths $100,000 for local health care Other charities also to benefit

FORT FRANCES—La Verendrye Hospital programs and nearly a dozen local charitable organizations will share a sizable gift left to them from the late Myrtle and Albert Gaylord of Fort Frances.
With the recent final closure and disbursement of the last will and testament of Myrtle Gaylord (who died in 2005) legally completed, her philanthropy and that of her husband, who passed away in 2000, warranted public recognition, said the estate’s co-executrices and an extended family member of the Gaylords.
“Myrtle and Albert Gaylord defined that $100,000 be left to [the] Riverside Foundation for Health Care and that the rest of the estate be divided up by more than 10 charities,” co-executrices Linda Hamilton and Marg Gushulak revealed during an interview last week.
“They were a quiet elderly couple—very unassuming—with no kids of their own.
“They were married 51 years and they would have otherwise anonymously donated this money and nobody would have known that they’d done that,” added Hamilton.
“We think we’d like the community to know.”
Other organizations also designated as beneficiaries of the Gaylord estate include the Salvation Army, Canadian Institute for the Blind, Canadian Red Cross, Heart and Stroke Foundation, Canadian Cancer Society, Lung Association, Canadian Liver Foundation, Fort Frances Friends of Animals, Knox United Church, the local Legion Ladies Auxiliary, and Sister Kennedy Centre.
Brian Gaylord of Fort Frances, a nephew of the late couple, also stressed Myrtle and Albert were community-minded and tirelessly supported the town through various organizations they belonged to, including Knox United Church and the Royal Canadian Legion.
“Money was very important to them—to save it [and] they were a private couple, yet they would help anybody,” he reiterated.
Teresa Hazel, director of the Riverside Foundation for Health Care, said that after discussions with the Gaylords’ extended family, the $100,000 donation from the estate will be used to benefit two hospital programs near and dear to the hearts of the benefactors.
“We are creating the ‘Myrtle Gaylord Endowment Fund,’ and the interest received off of that money every year will be put either towards the day hospital or the dialysis unit,” Hazel noted Thursday.
The day hospital program is one that Myrtle Gaylord participated in twice a week for some 25 years.
Albert Gaylord, meanwhile, died from kidney disease. Prior to his death, he was on home dialysis as the new hemo-dialysis unit was not yet functional at the hospital.
“These are the kind of surprise gifts that can go a long way [and] an endowment fund is a gift that keeps on giving,” Hazel remarked.
“I’ve learned such an appreciation for what Myrtle and Albert did,” said Hamilton, with Gushulak and Brain Gaylord nodding in agreement.
“I don’t think very many people would do that,” she admitted. “I don’t think very many people would work that hard, hard, hard, and then turn around and give it all back to the community.”
Albert Gaylord moved from Saskatchewan to Fort Frances in 1938, enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1939, and served overseas for the duration of World War Two.
He married Myrtle Morgan in 1948 and also worked in the paper mill as a pipefitter for 37 years, retiring in 1983. Myrtle Gaylord worked for the CIBC bank in both Fort Frances and Emo.