Care Between the Lines is a summer series, which will introduce you to volunteers in health care who fill gaps and provide compassion in a system that can be isolating and scary.<\/p>\n
There are many ways in which Dr. Petunia Ashley Ottersby is not like the other MDs at London Children\u2019s Hospital in Ontario. <\/p>\n
Sure, she wears scrubs, and she brightens the days of patients in her care. But consider her specialty: Dr. Ottersby is a \u201cbellybuttonologist.\u201d It\u2019s right there on her name tag. <\/p>\n
She\u2019s also a red-headed puppet, brought to manic, enthusiastic life by Sue Van Duynhoven, a ventriloquist and one of the longest-tenured volunteers at the pediatric facility, which is part of London Health Sciences Centre. <\/p>\n
On a recent Tuesday morning, Dr. Ottersby and Ms. Van Duynhoven had their work cut out for them. Their first audience was with a trio of sisters: Aubree Brown, 13, Isla Chabot Hopper, 6, and Coral Chabot Hopper, 4.<\/p>\n
Coral exploded with glee at every word that seemed to come out of Dr. Ottersby\u2019s mouth. \u201cYou\u2019re just a puppet! You have no eyeballs!\u201d she squealed as Dr. Ottersby insisted she was, in fact, a doctor, who could attach new belly buttons to patients with Velcro and duct tape. <\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Isla, left, and Coral Chabot Hopper react to Sue Van Duynhoven’s ventriloquism.Nicole Osborne\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n Aubree, the patient, was a cooler customer. She was in hospital receiving chemotherapy for leukemia. She smiled wryly and rolled her eyes a few times at her bouncing sisters as Ms. Van Duynhoven tried to calibrate her improvisations for a delirious kindergartener and a quiet teen at the same time.<\/p>\n Eventually, Aubree warmed up, telling Dr. Ottersby and a second puppet, a white-whiskered old-timer named Grandpa, about her pet snake, Waffles, her piano-playing and her photography hobby. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat I want to do is remind them who they are,\u201d Ms. Van Duynhoven said of the children she visits. \u201cBecause they have so many things happening to them right now, and everything\u2019s out of the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n Like many volunteers in Canadian hospitals, Ms. Van Duynhoven provides comfort and care to patients in the moments when doctors, nurses and other staff are swamped. Ms. Van Duynhoven and her puppets help fill the emotional gaps in health care, prodding children to giggle and forget their illnesses. <\/p>\n London Children\u2019s Hospital has other regular entertainers, including music and art therapists, but they are paid. Even the therapeutic clown is paid. Ms. Van Duynhoven, on the other hand, has been sharing her talents with sick children for free for 24 years, save for the stretches when COVID-19 lockdowns and her own bouts with breast cancer in 2019 and 2024 kept her away.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Aubree Brown, left, and Coral Chabot Hopper enjoy a visit from Ms. Van Duynhoven and her puppet, Petunia.Nicole Osborne\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n In that time, many patients have developed unique personal relationships with Ms. Van Duynhoven\u2019s cast of cloth characters, said Michelle Hart, a child-life specialist at London Children\u2019s for 29 years. That\u2019s especially true for children with chronic diseases who spend long stretches in the hospital, she added. <\/p>\n \u201cThe puppet is somebody that they can talk to without any inhibition,\u201d Ms. Hart said. \u201cThey can openly talk about themselves. The puppet is not going to judge.\u201d <\/p>\n Ms. Van Duynhoven has bittersweet memories of one girl who grew attached to Horace, a horse puppet with a \u201cbad Southern accent.\u201d The girl\u2019s mother asked if Horace could go home with her daughter for sleepovers, then for Christmas.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019m okay with that,\u2019 because I\u2019d already decided this puppet was her puppet. Period,\u201d Ms. Van Duynhoven recalled.<\/p>\n When the girl died, Horace was buried with her. \u201cIt was such a weird, wonderful, magical, horrible feeling, all at the same time,\u201d Ms. Van Duynhoven said. \u201cI still miss that child. She was an amazing human being.\u201d<\/p>\n