The past year has been a lesson in patience and hope for Marni Van Kessel.
That lesson applies to both the Orillia woman’s career and music.
Van Kessel is the program director for kidney care, cancer and genetics with Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSMH). She is also seconded to the Ontario Renal Network, serving as its regional director for north Simcoe and Muskoka.
A major part of her job is planning for the years ahead, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, “we’ve had to focus on today, tomorrow and maybe next week,” she said of the ever-changing situation.
Hospitals always have disaster plans, but “a disaster that goes on for 12 months is something nobody can plan for,” Van Kessel said.
“The last year has been intense,” she said. “It’s just so mentally and physically draining on the whole team.”
But, they are indeed a team, and she has “never been more proud to work at OSMH.”
“You’re in crisis together for so long that, as a team, you see how much you depend on each other,” she said, “and that goes from the front line right up to the CEO’s office.”
Her passion for the job hasn’t waned, and health care has always been an interest.
Van Kessel graduated from Georgian College in 1992 with a nursing diploma. Shortly after, she was offered a job at OSMH but turned it down. She was dating Steve (now her husband) at the time and he had an opportunity to go to school in Florida. She joined him.
When they got there, she started a job in a kidney clinic and “fell in love with it.”
While she was in the waiting room, waiting for her job interview to start, she knew kidney care was a special area of health care.
“People were in the waiting room, all chit-chatting with each other like they were long-lost friends,” she recalled, adding the staff interacted similarly with the patients. “It wasn’t like anyone was a number. It was obvious from the get-go that there was almost a sense of family. I really connected with the atmosphere, and I haven’t looked back. I have received as much as I have given through that experience.”
She learned some valuable lessons from the patients, including one who told her, “Hell, kid, the golden years aren’t so golden. Live your life the way you want to live it now.”
About two years after starting that job, she and Steve left the Sunshine State and returned to the Sunshine City, and this June will mark Van Kessel’s 27th year with OSMH.
Her work routine isn’t the only thing that’s been disrupted by the pandemic. It has also forced her to put music on the back burner.
She and her husband make up the duo VK. They were playing a show in Orillia the weekend before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic.
They have performed during some virtual concerts since then, “but it’s not the same,” Van Kessel said.
Singing has been a passion of hers since she was in elementary school, when she received vocal training, performed in choirs and competed at music festivals. It wasn’t something she pursued as much in her adult years, but an opportunity came up.
About a decade ago, Steve decided he wanted to strengthen his focus on his singing and songwriting. He got together with some fellow musicians and they began practising. Van Kessel would often attend and take photos.
During one practice, they realized they could use backing vocals.
“One of the guys said, ‘Why don’t you sing?’” Van Kessel recalled. “By the end of the night, I was in the band.”
“I wasn’t looking for that to come back into my life again,” she continued, “but once I stood in front of the mic and did it, I thought, ‘This feels great. It feels different this time.’”
VK has released three albums — one on their own with session musicians, one with the Narrows and one with Legends of the Deep. VK even earned a nomination for Blues and Roots Radio Worldwide Album of the Year, for the album Terms and Conditions.
They had begun working on their next album before the pandemic hit, but music had to be pushed down the priority list.
Pre-pandemic, it was easier for them to find a balance between music and work, but, given Van Kessel’s job at the hospital and her husband’s role as owner of Parry Automotive, they had to shift the focus away from writing and recording.
They look forward to returning to the studio and recording some of the songs they have stashed away.
“We’ll be picking those up and dusting them off and getting everybody back in the studio when we can,” Van Kessel said.
It will just take some patience and hope, and she knows all about that.
Van Kessel received the first dose of the much-anticipated COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 2 and the second dose on Feb. 3.
“It was very emotional because it’s attached to a lot of hope,” she said. “Knowing people personally who have passed on from COVID and seeing the effects of the pandemic on people around me, it really was a feeling of hope — hope that somewhere in the future, there will be an end to this. I can’t wait for it to be available to everybody.”
This feature appears each Monday. If you have an idea for someone who should be profiled in this space, send your suggestion to [email protected].
