LEWISTON — Bill Legere knows what it’s like to be on both sides of the emergency room door.

Nurse practitioner. 

Grief-stricken father. 

In the ER at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, he’s a medical professional, the guy who knows exactly how to calm scared children and comfort elderly patients. But he’s also the father who suddenly lost his 9-year-old daughter, Grace, two years ago when a commercial pickup truck rear-ended the pony cart she was riding in. He’s the husband who cried with his wife in CT room no. 1 as they said goodbye to their little girl.  

While some wouldn’t be able to return to the same ER where their eldest daughter died, Legere walks through the doors every week, working to be the calm center of the emergency room maelstrom. Legere, with his family, says he’s found new purpose in a foundation they created in Grace’s memory. While some would give in to grief, or harden themselves against new tragedies, Legere remains hopeful, faithful, open, compassionate to those around him.    

On Wednesday, he was honored for his work.

The Maine Hospital Association named him Caregiver of the Year.

“I had no idea. No idea. I was overwhelmed when (CMMC) shared with me they had nominated me,” said Legere, with a small, shy smile. “To be brought up in the spotlight like this is overwhelming.”

Legere and his wife, Teresa, both studied health care at the University of Southern Maine and went to work at CMMC. After the couple adopted their three daughters — Grace, Sarah and Deanna — from Romania, Teresa left her job to be a stay-at-home mom and to homeschool the girls. Legere remained a nurse practitioner in CMMC’s ER.

On June 2, 2008, he had just finished a shift at the hospital and was back home in Auburn, eating dinner and waiting for his wife and daughters to return from their visit to a farm in Buckfield, when the phone rang. A paramedic told him to get back to the ER. Two of his girls, 9-year-old Grace and 7-year-old Deanna, had been in an accident.

Deanna had a fractured skull, a serious injury but one that would not prove life-threatening. Grace’s injuries were far more severe. At the ER, Legere and his wife stood by as co-workers — the same people who’d given them an adoption shower and who’d watched the girls grow up — tried to resuscitate Grace. She never responded.

Although Legere and his wife felt blessed to have had Grace in their lives, they were also grief-stricken and in pain. In the weeks that followed, they focused on trying to comfort their daughters and piece together their shattered family. They prayed that something good, anything good, would come from their loss.  

Ultimately, in Grace’s honor, they decided to start the Foundation for Hope and Grace, a charity that provides grants to families looking to adopt and financial help to organizations that help orphans and other children in need.

After 12 weeks away, Legere returned to the ER. Although much of his work remained the same, he found he could no longer go into the room where he said goodbye to Grace and he could not handle some severe trauma cases involving children. And something more subtle changed for him.

Although Legere had always been concerned and caring when it came to his patients, Grace’s loss “made me recognize that everything matters. Every interaction matters. You can’t just have a bad day and hurt somebody’s feelings or not care for them and pass it off as a bad day,” he said. “Every day, it does matter.”  

Peggy McRae, a co-worker and director of the emergency department, first proposed nominating Legere for Caregiver of the Year last year, soon after he won an internal hospital award for his work.

Without Legere’s knowledge, the hospital pulled together an application. In the nomination letter, McRae talked about Legere’s ability to set people at ease, whether that meant kneeling in front of a frightened child or sitting close to an elderly patients to ease their intimidation. Other co-workers remarked on Legere’s ability to stay calm in a crisis, his willingness to stay late to support his colleagues, his empathy and selflessness in all aspects of his life.     

In all, 19 Maine doctors, nurses and others were nominated for Caregiver of the Year. The award committee was deeply impressed by Legere.

“It was not only the stuff he does every day at the bedside, but it was also what he gives back in turning the tragedy into helping others,” said Steven Michaud, president of the Maine Hospital Association and member of the committee.

McRae learned in May that Legere had won.

“I was just elated. It was so exciting. Tears just came to my eyes,” she said.

Legere learned about the award soon after. A  low-key, self-effacing man, he couldn’t believe he’d been nominated, let alone that he’d won. He found that he couldn’t read the nomination packet his co-workers had prepared — it was all too emotional.

“I am humbled by it. I really am,” he said.

He received the award at the association’s summer forum in Rockport on Wednesday evening.

Two years after the crash, any criminal investigation has been closed. The Oxford County Sheriff’s Office recently decided not to charge driver Loren Shackford with Grace’s death.

Life at the Legere home continues. Before Grace’s death, Legere and his wife had decided to adopt again. That decision was put on hold — until recently. In a few months, they will adopt two children from Uganda, girls ages 3 and 1. 

“It felt like it was OK for us to move forward,” Legere said. “The girls (Sarah and Deanna) can now see themselves as big sisters-to-be rather than little sisters who used to be.”

The foundation the family launched in Grace’s memory is also doing well. It has so far given four grants to adoptive families, two of them for international adoptions and two for domestic. It is helping to fund a school and a church program for street children in Ecuador. And it is looking to get involved in local foster care projects.

As both the foundation and his family grow, Legere has cut back on his hours at the hospital. Still, he can’t imagine leaving the ER for good. 

“I suspect I will do this for quite some time,” he said. “With that balance.”

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