From housekeeper to volunteer at the Montreal General Hospital, George has always shined

George Hine—or as he likes to joke, M.G.H. for “Mr. George Hine”—started at the Montreal General Hospital in 1972 in Housekeeping. From day one he understood his job was important and that he knew he would always give the best he could to his hospital.

“I started as an isolation cleaner, then I worked in the burn unit as group leader and then I became the ‘curtain man,’ which means I changed all the curtains when the patients went home,” says Hine. “From there I became the official ‘trouble shooter.’ In that job I would pretty much repair or improve just about anything.”

But Hine didn’t stop at the jobs he was assigned when it came to supporting his hospital. He joined the suggestion committee, which would take suggestions from staff and try to implement what they could, and he became a hospital firefighter. 

“We were required to train at one of the fire departments in the city and we had regular practice drills right on the grounds of the hospital,” Hine recalls. “The first seven minutes were ours before the fire trucks arrived.”

But another job Hine proudly assumed was being “the contact for patients from the outside world to inside the hospital.”

“In my opinion, the housekeepers are just as important as the doctors and nurses when it comes to the comfort of a patient,” he says. “The doctor will go in and look at a patient and say, How are you this morning?, and the patient will say I am fine. Then the nurse will come in and say I am here to do your dressing, and the patient will say okay. But then the ‘ole housekeeping guys come in and the patients say, Did the Canadiens win last night? And, How about that weather? And so on.”

Hine is proud of the positive impact he had on patients and families and of course of the critical role he played in disinfection. Over the years he got to know Pierre Trudeau, Jean Beliveau, Roger Doucet (best known for singing the Canadian national Anthem at hockey games), and Toe Blake (a Canadien’s coach), when they were in the hospital. In typical fashion, he flashed his warm smile and within a short while forged a friendship.

“I told my kids when they were young that I was a ‘moptologist’ to make my job sound more important,” says Hine. “They thought I had the greatest job in the world, which I already knew I did.”

In 1997, Hines retired, but he stayed loyal to his “second home.” Since, he has volunteered in may capacities, from playing Santa (which he seems to be best known for), to helping raise thousands of dollars in the Early Bird Sale the Auxiliary holds every year to most recently conceiving the idea of a used bookstore, which he developed with the help of the Auxiliary and Volunteer Department. His job became building it—which he did with scrap wood pieces for $99—and supplying the books.

“From January 2012 to this January it has raised $20,000,” says Hine, who was made an honorary Auxiliary member and who recently won a Governor’s General Award for his volunteering. “All of which goes straight to patient care.”

As with anything that Hine touches, he seems to generate a wind that blows strong behind the wings of all of his projects. When word got out that he needed books, his local library said they would provide him with a load once a month. And one day a school bus stopped in front of his house while he and his wife were raking and the driver delivered him two bags of books. He has also come home to bags of books in his driveway.

His simple answer for the gravity of his ideas: everything I do I have people helping me—I have a great support system.

When asked why it is important for him to give so wholeheartedly in many capacities he says because he knows he can touch so many lives and make so many people happy. “It doesn’t cost anything for the little time it takes,” he says. “And I get so much out of it—as much as I give, I get.”

“I am treated like a director and I come from housekeeping,” says Hine. “It doesn’t matter what you do in life; it is how you do it.”