More than 100 years of compassionate care in Trochu
July 6, 2026
By Quinn Phillips, senior communications advisor
For Bev Hill, St. Mary’s Health Care Centre has left a distinct mark. She was born here in 1956 — in room 20 to be exact. The Sisters taught her nursing practices here. And now, 47 years later, she still provides care as a health care aide at the independent living and long-term care facility in the central Alberta town of Trochu.
“This is where I belong,” says Bev. “This is where I’m meant to be. This is what God chose for me, and I’m pretty lucky.”
It started when Bev was just 17 years old and the Sisters invited her to attend the St. Mary’s Training School for Nursing at, what was then, the community’s hospital.
“They had extremely high standards,” Bev says of her schooling. “You had to keep up with them. But they taught you that your job wasn’t just a job; it was a vocation.”
“The charism of the Sisters continues today in the Covenant staff, volunteers and pastoral care team at St. Mary’s,” says Simonne Frere, who works with the St. Mary’s Foundation and is a community board member. “We respond with compassion, kindness and generosity to each resident and their families.”
Halls filled with love
Opened in August 1909, St. Mary’s Health Care Centre is rich with history.
“Covenant Health in Trochu is a continuation of the care provided by the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Evron that began in the humble ‘coulee’ in 1909, with the arrival of the eight founding Sisters,” says Simonne.
You see that storied history wandering the lush grounds of the site, which includes a cemetery where the Sisters lay to rest, most of them born in the 1800s, Bev says.
You hear the history in the stories, like the one about the slide that was attached to the building in the 1950s to evacuate patients, but the children of Trochu loved to sneak into it.
Most importantly, though, you feel the history with the love that fills the hallways of the centre from both the staff and residents, Bev says.
“You will ask yourself every day, if this is my mother or father, how would I want them treated. That was my first lesson.”
That 17-year-old student hasn’t forgotten, and she is among many making sure the next generation is taught the same so St. Mary’s Health Care Centre in Trochu can continue to provide compassionate care for the next 100 years.