Doctor pays $500K to revamp courtyard at care home where he works

Fifty years after Dr. Pravinsagar Mehta began caring for residents at Actionmarguerite, a courtyard he had long watched deteriorate is getting a new life after he and his wife committed $500,000 to its redevelopment and long-term maintenance.

The renewed courtyard at Actionmarguerite St. Boniface on Despins Street will officially open Friday, giving its 299 residents an accessible place to spend time outside.

When Mehta, now 80, began working at St. Boniface Home in 1976, the new courtyard reminded him of a park near his childhood home in Uganda — one of the highlights of his upbringing.

“I said, ‘Wow, isn’t it amazing that I can go out, sit outside, and relax there?’” Mehta recalled.

But nearly five decades later, the courtyard was showing its age.

“It was getting run down, and I always had my eyes on how we can revitalize it,” said Mehta, who still works at the home.

Actionmarguerite eventually began looking at redeveloping the space, and Mehta was asked if he knew anyone who might be willing to contribute.

He decided he and his wife, Kalpana, would help.

Their $500,000 commitment, made in 2024, included $250,000 toward the Actionmarguerite Foundation’s Cultivating Hope campaign and $250,000 to create an endowment for courtyard maintenance.

Mehta had two conditions.

“One, it has to be completed by this year, 2026,” he said. “And it has to be maintained, so it cannot ever run down.”

Construction began in late 2025, and residents have been using the courtyard for the past few weeks.

The redesigned courtyard includes fully accessible pathways, quiet alcoves, an open lawn, seating areas, a shade structure for concerts and activities, wheelchair-accessible swings, raised garden beds, native plants and trees, a water feature and heating elements.

“It’s not about me or anybody else,” Mehta said. “It’s about the residents and the staff to enjoy.”

He said studies have shown that green space and regular walking can help with dementia, delirium and depression.

His own relationship with physical activity runs deep. He has played badminton, squash and cricket, run marathons and has swum every day since 1994.

“I know what it is to be disabled,” Mehta said, recalling a period when he was seriously ill and almost in a wheelchair. He said he went into remission after taking up swimming.

“So that’s what green space, physical activity, means, and that’s why I advocate for them.”

That belief has followed Mehta through five decades of caring for older adults, during which he has watched the needs of long-term-care residents change.

Back when Mehta started, residents typically stayed in long-term care for five to seven years. Now, he said, the average is closer to three to four years, and residents often arrive with more complex medical needs and require end-of-life care.

He said care has also become more focused on residents’ families.

“It’s caring for the family more than the resident, making sure we look at what they want rather than what we want to provide them with,” he said.

Mehta said that philosophy was particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Actionmarguerite created a dedicated unit to care for residents with COVID-19 rather than transferring them to a hospital.

The organization also created an outdoor space where families could visit while remaining separated from residents with the virus.

“We never believed in completely isolating people,” Mehta said. “People were killed not only because of COVID-19; they died because they were isolated.”

Mehta said he hopes the courtyard becomes part of the everyday life of the home rather than simply being remembered as a construction project.

“Its real success will be measured by the smiles of the residents, just the conversation that the staff and the family who gather there will have, and the memories that will be created there for the years ahead,” he said.

“That is the legacy I hope that that courtyard will have.”

zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca