The Bauckham sisters with their mother I was delighted when my cousin Blanche drove from Petawawa (approximately 250 miles from Toronto) to visit me in the hospital. Blanche is my only relative in Canada except for my two daughters and two grandchildren. She and I are second cousins. Our fathers were first cousins and good…
The ‘bus’ in the subject line is not a typo. It’s an acknowledgement that chemo can leave you feeling more like you’ve been hit by a bus and you’re lying on the road rather than lying in a bed, even a hospital bed. My second round of chemo on November 1st caught me by surprise,…
You know when you can’t sleep – you toss and turn, count sheep, think positive thoughts, try meditating, go get a glass of warm milk. Nothing works. At 1 a.m. you look out the window to see if anyone else has their lights on, 2 a.m. you check your email and FB messenger, 3 a.m.…
It’s early fall in Toronto. The trees are turning to flame, the days are getting cooler and shorter. The nights are getting longer. It’s just after 7 p.m. The lowest hydro rates have kicked in and for the second time this week I’ve thrown a load of laundry into the washer. Suddenly, I’m thrust back…
My daughter is a frontline worker. She’s not a doctor or a nurse or a personal support worker. She works frontend (which means she helps the cashiers) at Costco. Five days a week, seven hours a day she’s there with her face mask and her gloves helping to get the job done so the rest…
When my 7-year-old grandson asked me, “Who would I be if you hadn’t ‘dopted Mummy?” I murmured “Mmm,” and said, “That’s a good question.” “Well Jana,” he insisted, “Who would I be? Would I still be me? Would the lady who ‘dopted Mummy be my grandma? I wouldn’t want that. Would I have cousins in…
Spot was a stray: part sheepdog, part terrier. I don’t know how he got the name Spot — he was black with no markings — or how he came to live with us. Well, he didn’t actually live with us. He lived in a kennel outside. “Please Dad,” I would plead. “Can he just stay…
I stood in front of the dusty chalkboard shoulders back, arms at my sides, stiff like a soldier. I stared out at my six and seven-year-old classmates and took a deep breath. It was my turn to do morning talk (show and tell in Canada). I don’t know what drove me that particular day to…
It was early spring in New Zealand, the end of the August school holidays. I was bored and couldn’t wait for school to start again. I was staring out the window wondering what I would do for the day. I knew I would clean my room, do dishes and peel the potatoes for tea. These…
Two little girls, one wearing pink, the other wearing blue, sit together on a velvet chair staring straight ahead with no sign of a smile. They watch from behind a large wooden frame. On the back of the frame, there is a label that reads: Parker, portrait painter and general artist, Imperial Art Studio, Grey…