“What do you want to brag about today?” This is the first question Dr. Peter Rosenbaum, a beloved doctor with McMaster University’s CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research, likes to ask his patients when they visit. The power of perspective Mindset plays a significant role in how a family or patient manages their daily life…
I bought new shoes recently. They are unlike any shoes I’ve ever bought before. They are sleek and streamlined on top, rugged with aggressive tread on the bottom, and they have high-tech elastic “speed laces” with a quick-action toggle and a nifty secret pocket on the tongue in which to hide it. The only thing…
The last book my dad loaned me was Henri Nouwen’s Reaching Out. It’s a strange little book from 1975, all about loneliness. His copy is full of notes, shaky underlines, and emphatic arrows. Twenty years ago, when he first got sick, I read those marked-up passages so often I nearly memorized them. I hadn’t thought…
The word “transformational” is often used to describe the moment or experience that forever impacts every part of you. My moment came on the warm evening of June 30, 1997, when I stood with Ralph outside my parents’ home, seeing the silhouette of my father and younger sister Rhoda framed in the front porch light…
It’s the last month of school for many Ontario students, and it’s the last month of Janneke’s last year in elementary school. She’s our youngest child, so this is a significant time for us as a family. We’ve accessed different schools over the years for all four of our children: government-funded systems (public and Catholic)…
Observing the slow shift from winter into spring is therapeutic. I enjoyed time outside recently with my mother–in-law. We made a point to just sit in the sun for a while. With delight, she pointed to the crocuses popping their heads out of the soil in the gardens around her long-term care home. May marks…
Once upon a time I was feeling ambitious, so I made a plan to take both Rachel and Janneke swimming at our local community centre. I visited the pool ahead of time to learn of their regulations, as I’d be arriving with two medically fragile teens who use wheelchairs. I also hired a caregiver; together,…
Our oldest lives downtown Toronto, and on my visits, we’ve enjoyed walks in High Park, exploring the side streets, and finding good coffee. In one small shop on Bloor St. in Toronto, I found a game that includes nine cubes that look like dice. Instead of dots for numbers, each side of each cube has…
Ableism had left its mark on my disabled body long before I knew its name. As hard as I scrubbed, I couldn’t rid myself from the sticky residue on my skin, or remove the thorn that pierced clear through to my bones. It was a part of me as much as Jesus was, but I…
Recently, I took Rachel and Janneke for their yearly visit to our paediatric neurologist at McMaster Children’s Hospital. Visits like this are long, but the length is intentional. We make time to review everything about the girls – emotional, physical and developmental. Though I need a large coffee in hand, I appreciate the comprehensive family-centred…
When I came to retrieve Janneke from school at the end of her first week, three of her classmates were with her. They chattered excitedly and asked, “Is Janneke coming to the back-to-school BBQ tonight?” I loved the interaction with Janneke’s classmates because it illustrated two things: Janneke matters to them, and the perspective they…
“‘God told me to pray for you,’ she says. Her words linger like cloying perfume in a claustrophobic space. ‘God wants to heal you!’ She is undoubtedly thrilled with this opportunity. I’ve been here before. It never ends well.” So begins Amy Kenny’s must-read My Body is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the…
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