Generosity Across Generations: Geven Opal’s Story

The conversation took place more than 40 years ago, but Geven Opal recalls it as if it happened yesterday.

Her son, barely over a year old at the time, had fallen ill with a blood disorder. After many tests for leukemia and several visits to the hospital, it turned out the baby didn't have leukemia, but rather a condition that would clear up over time. On her last day at the hospital, Geven remembers taking the elevator and striking up a casual conversation with one of the medical staff.

"They said, 'Oh you must be happy now that [the baby] is okay. You must be so happy to leave,' and I said, 'Yes, but look at all the families here, with sick children, and look at all these families sitting here devastated.'

"I saw it firsthand, and it gave me a feel for what a really good facility can do for families."

With that experience embedded into her memory, it was only natural for Geven to follow her heart as a philanthropist.

At the Giving Hearts Gala February 2021, Langley's donor community fundraised for a Giraffe Omnibed Carestation - a state-of-the-art warmer and incubator that protects sick and vulnerable newborns with temperature and light control.

When she learned through friends that the donations would fully fund one carestation but the hospital needed one more, she jumped on the opportunity.

Thanks to her generosity, the maternity unit now has two Giraffe Omnibed Carestations to nurture vulnerable infants.

For Geven, this gesture of generosity was as much a way of giving back after her own early experiences as a mother, as it was an instinct stemming from a childhood that revolved around family and community generosity.

Her father, the first-generation immigrant-turned-lumber-baron Asa Singh Johal, started with little, but ultimately built Terminal Forest Products, BC's largest independent lumber company. Thought it evolved into one of the premier companies in BC, Geven defines her early family experiences as full of humility and warmth.

"I grew up very 'country style,'" she says.

She remembers sitting with her grandmother and a circle of close women as they crafted quilts for anyone in need. She also saw how her parents turned their concern for family, or community members who fell on hard times, into acts of generosity.

"I learned by seeing it firsthand," she explains. "No one verbalized 'you must do this, or you should do that.' It was 'if the need is there, you step forward.' That's how we were. If anybody needed something, it was done, right from the get-go.

"This is the way we were brought up: to continue to be of service. I don't know any different."