The end of the laughter: Former TV news anchor Deb Hope’s Alzheimer’s has taken her into the shadows

The end of the laughter: Former TV news anchor Deb Hope’s Alzheimer’s has taken her into the shadows
CHEK

For two generations Deb Hope was one of the most iconic faces in B.C.

Deb read the news at noon, five and ultimately the station’s top-rated flagship BCTV – now Global – News Hour at 6 p.m., usually alongside Tony Parsons. The News Hour was carried for many years on CHEK TV also.

She also had one of the most famous laughs anywhere. When Wayne Cox, the weatherman, or Squire Barnes, the sports anchor, would make funny, she would lose it, with one of the most wonderful guffaws anywhere.

And the laugh was real. Deb was one of the most genuine people you would ever meet. Warm and always interested about everyone and everything. She may have been one of the best-known people in the province, but there was never any ego. Self-belief, yes, but no TV princess here.

Deb retired six years ago when she was just 59 years old. But even before she retired, there were signs of the Alzheimer’s that sent Deb into a terrible decline. Today she is a shadow of herself living in a nursing home not recognizing even her husband Roger or two daughters Katherine and Roxanne or her stepdaughter Leah. She now has a one-year-old granddaughter Veronica.

Deb has lost a significant amount of weight. And rarely laughs.

When she was still reading the news, Deb had begun to stumble over words or names. She would ask her producers the same questions about a story or the subject she was to interview. She was always a meticulous journalist, always wanted to get it right. But now she was showing some signs of confusion.

Deb had never missed a beat. But now not everything seemed to be in sync.

Global’s then News Director Ian Haysom – who also worked at CHEK as News Director – had noticed some changes too, and some in the control room had said they were worried that Deb seemed to be losing the plot.

“I was friends with Deb and Roger as well as colleagues. One day I called her in and told her I was a little worried she seemed to be making mistakes on air,” said Haysom. “I wanted to know if there was a problem, anything I could do to help. It was very early days and I think we were in denial. I also didn’t want to insult her. She was still young and Alzheimer’s never really entered my mind. I wondered if she needed eyeglasses to see the teleprompter properly.

“Deb came in a couple of days later and said, ‘Hey Boss. Good call. I need new specs. It’ll all be fine now’. Deb was in denial too. I mean, Deb was in her 50s going on 29. She had one of the sharpest minds anywhere.”

For her BCTV/Global family, Deb was more than what you saw on the screen. Much more. She was in many ways the life of the station……you often heard her before you saw her.

The newsroom lit up every time that wonderful laugh of hers floated through the room.

Producer Phairis Sajan recalls airing a clip from “I Love Lucy.”

“It was that hilarious scene with Lucy and Ethel working in a chocolate factory when they can’t keep up with the conveyor belt and start shoving chocolates in their mouths, hats, and down their shirts. Well, Deb started laughing while the story was on and she. Could. Not. Stop. All of us in the control room caught the giggles not from watching the clip but from watching Deb lose it. By the end of the story, she was in tears, crying so hard and her head was on the desk, so we went straight to break! She loved to laugh.”

Former News Director Steve Wyatt said Deb was a tough and determined journalist but never failed to bring balance, fairness and truth to every story she told.

“Deb was the best guardian of everything the Global newsroom was built on. An unwavering commitment to good pictures, well-edited as the foundation for impactful storytelling.

“And in all the years we worked together, Deb was singular in making sure she never became the “story” at the expense of the content and every one of her colleagues who worked so hard alongside her.”

And she could deliver great moments of joy to the audience.

Wyatt says he will always remember the beautiful moment when she followed up with a family who had decided to have their baby girl, born deaf, receive cochlear implants that were new and controversial at the time.

Deb and her camera operator captured the second that baby heard her mother’s voice for the first time.

“Pure magic. Pure Deb,” said Wyatt.

Deb also helped and mentored many of the younger reporters, writers and producers in the BCTV and Global studios.

One of those junior producers was Rob Germain, who is now the general manager of CHEK TV. “As a high school student, I used to watch Deb van der Gracht – as she was known early in her career – co-anchoring the Noon News Hour with Jim Hart. Years later I found myself working alongside Deb, producing that very newscast. She gave me the latitude and trust to make decisions – and mistakes — which ultimately Deb fronted on-air. We had a close-knit team that worked under tight deadlines, but we enjoyed the total freedom to create the best program (Deb never liked calling it a “show”) that we could. We had fun and there were always lots of laughs from our corner of the newsroom. Deb’s laugh being the most prominent.”

Deb was also, in many ways, the conscience of the station, with a moral compass that frequently challenged what stories we covered and how we covered them. “She was never shy about marching up to me, or another manager, and ask what the hell we were thinking,” said Haysom. “If stories didn’t meet the Deb test, they usually weren’t worth telling.”

While she is known for her decades as an anchor, she was a highly successful, award-winning reporter for much of the 1980s before making the switch to anchoring.

Deb grew up in Trail and went to UBC where she began to immerse herself in journalism on the campus radio station.

Her early plans to become a lawyer were abandoned because she thought journalism would be more fun.

She started out with Canadian Press in Ottawa and one of her first assignments was to do a puff piece on Prince Charles, who was in town at Rideau Hall.

Now, you need to know, that Deb was knock-em-dead gorgeous and in the middle of the interview she realized that the Prince was hitting on her.

When she went out the front door to leave, he followed her outside and accompanied her down the drive. She said that it wasn’t until his handlers came to her rescue that she was able to make her escape from his advances.

In future years she would twice have dinner with his mother Queen Elizabeth while working for BCTV. One of those dinners was on the Royal Yacht Britannia. Later she would win an award for her coverage of the Queen’s visit.

While working at CP in Vancouver, she started hounding BCTV’s news director Cameron Bell, for a job. He said (after a year of hounding) that she had strong writing skills, and decided to give her a shot. The rest is history.

Shortly after starting at BCTV, she did one of the first-ever live reports for the 6 o’clock news – from Calgary. Her colleagues were in awe. She was also the first western journalist (after the revolution) invited to tour the Yangtze River Gorge in China before it was flooded for hydroelectric power.

When Wayne Gretzky was traded to L.A., Deb was sent to L.A. to interview the Great One after his first game. She said that he didn’t want to do the interview, but that she got her way in the end.

Deb was at game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in ’94 in New York with the Canucks. She ended up watching game 7 with the Canucks owner Emily Griffiths. When the Canucks lost that cliffhanger of a game, Deb started to cry. When she started crying, Emily turned to her and said, “don’t worry dear, there will be other years. “ There hasn’t been one yet.

There were so many stories: from crime to politics. Hard-nosed breaking stories to features – she had the ability to cover anything and everything.

But one outstanding story that is well remembered for was a feature she did on “Mr Whistle”, as she called him. Bob Swanson was the man who created many of B.C.’s most famous whistle sounds.

Working on a small organ in his basement he created the sounds used on the ferries, CP Rail, CN Rail. Even the whistle used on the Royal Hudson when it was running.

The story was written in Deb’s elegant style and drew rave reviews.

Her first anchor job was on the Noon News. Soon after that, she made the cover of TV Guide for the first time. Her husband, Roger, a cameraman at the same station walked into a drug store shortly after she began anchoring and saw Deb on the magazine cover beside the cash register.

He hadn’t known she was on the cover.

“I thought, okay, one for me, one for her, one for her mother, and one for my mother. So, four TV Guides. Now, the girl at the cash register sees me throw down four magazines and says, “So, do you watch a lot of TV or what?” I was totally embarrassed so I said, ‘no, she’s my wife. Then she said, “Yeah, You Wish!’”

Clive Jackson and his wife travelled on safari to various parts of Africa with Deb and Roger on three separate occasions and sadly witnessed her gradually decline. Africa was in many ways the place she was happiest – and her sheer delight at watching, and photographing, the animals brought happiness to everyone around her.

Shortly after Deb retired, an executive from Mining BC sent her the five stories from a mining series that she had done 20 years earlier. He also sent a big, thank you. He said that those stories had helped save the mining industry in BC, and they wanted her to know it.

But it was her tireless work for charities that will also be forever remembered – Deb was the face of Variety Club for BCTV for over 20 years, worked for the Courage To Come Back Group, and the Down Syndrome Foundation.

And that’s Deb. Full of joy. Full of fun. Full of generosity. And love.

Her decline has been rapid over the past few years. She had began to stumble over names at Global, now she didn’t remember names or faces, First of colleagues. Then friends. Then her family. She lived at home for many years with Roger and her daughters supporting her, before she went into a care home.

“It’s been a heartbreaking journey,” said Roger. “I mean, she’s still Deb. Still wonderful, loving, gorgeous. But she’s not the real Deb and she’s not with us anymore. And that’s breaking all our hearts.”

And it’s time her own story was told. She may have problems remembering much these days. But many in this province will never forget her.

Clive Jackson and Ian Haysom were, respectively, managing editor and news director of BCTV and later Global News in British Columbia

Donations in Deb’s honour can be made to the Alzheimer Society of B.C. by visiting alzbc.org/donateFor information and support please call the First Link Dementia Helpline at 1-800-936-6033.

Here are some more pictures of Deb and family, courtesy of Roger. 

Clive JacksonClive Jackson
Ian HaysomIan Haysom

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