Dear Editor,

I am a volunteer with palliative care at Langley Memorial Hospital.

Families and visitors are visiting loved ones or friends at the ends of their lives. They pay the price of parking for what they judge is adequate time (which is a sad state of affairs), and in their grief and sadness, the last thing on their mind is feeding the parking meter, so getting a ticket adds insult to injury.

When I raise the subject with parking attendants I am told that, once they know they are going to be parking in the palliative parking lot over some time, they can purchase a parking pass for a nominal fee.

At the best of times some of us have difficulty navigating the parking meter systems, least of all remembering to feed the meter when time has elapsed.

I have also had experience with bringing a family member to emergency when things were more complicated than we expected, and when I went out to put more money in the meter, I saw a woman pleading with the meter attendant to give her a chance to feed the meter as she had to get change. He refused, and gave her a ticket.

I never argue with the meter attendant, but I estimate I have paid over $200 for this very thing when my husband was taken to two different hospitals in the Lower Mainland in emergency situations over the past year.

Faye Causley, Langley