Scratch
I rode with Grandma to church / in her clattery sedan. / guarding a tin of biscuits / I had watched her bake earlier. / We listened to a cassette / of Scourby narrating / the six days of creation / in mid-Atlantic drone.
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Permission to imagine
“And by this time either they had grown much smaller or the picture had grown bigger. Eustace jumped to pull it off the wall and found himself standing on the frame; in front of him was not glass but real sea, and wind and waves rushing up to the frame as they might to a…
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The joy of going slow
Camping might be the quintessential Canadian vacation. In a country with fewer than five people for every square kilometre and most of us enjoying easy access to nature, sleeping outdoors in the summer is a simple pleasure. Parks Canada even has a section of its website dedicated to learning to camp, with videos, instructions, recipes,…
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Finding empathy in the dark side of caregiving and ageing
Getting old is often not pretty: incontinence, managing medications and doctors’ visits (if one has the luxury of a family physician), navigating the medical system, making and getting to appointments – all of it can be overwhelming. Care management often falls to relatives. Yet some live too far away, some may be in similar circumstances…
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A life transformed
Kyla Gillespie’s just-released memoir, TransFormed, tells the story of growing up in Nanaimo, B.C. as a girl who never felt at home in her body. Her story includes playing professional women’s hockey in the early 2000s, alcohol addiction, same-sex attraction and relationship breakdowns. Starting in 2011, Gillespie officially changed her name to Brycen and began…
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Micro-actions matter in education and disability healthcare
As I have shifted from working with schools to working with health care providers and researchers, I have observed that a school’s core value of cultivating learning communities of belonging in schools is similar to the value of creating a sense of community in healthcare, particularly as it relates to disability. In education and healthcare,…
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Afternoons with a woman of valour (aka Mom)
For the past 18 months, I’ve been plugging away at a “writing project” with my mom, recording her memories about every photo in her 25 albums. These conversations are then transcribed – raw material for a family history. It’s a monumental undertaking. Here’s a short list of the stumbling blocks. Mom’s impaired hearing and poor…
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From fugitive to healer
In September 1944, my parents, my three brothers and I – ages 2 to 6 – fled our home in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. We hoped to escape the relentless bombing as Allied forces fought to capture the city from German occupation. When the Allies succeeded, Nijmegen suddenly became a frontline post, with German shells battering…
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Affordable housing, one family at a time
The house sits in a quiet neighbourhood, likely built between 1975 and 1995. Mature trees grace the adjoining lots with sidewalks lining the streets. There’s a front lawn and a private backyard with plenty of room for gardens and growing kids. It’s within walking distance of helpful amenities and recreational trails. What makes this house…
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Bedside perspectives on MAID
“Horrifically peaceful.” That’s how Richard Bodini, pastor at Heritage Fellowship Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in Brampton, Ontario, describes being present with a person passing from life to death through Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). “Going from having a conversation with the person to praying over their cold body in a matter of moments,” he says,…
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In praise of male friendship
I grew up in a small town about a hundred kilometres from Vancouver. Surrounded by hobby farms and forests, I spent much of my childhood swimming in lakes, building forts and riding my bike. Gay people were barely spoken of in my family, and were rarely, if ever, encountered. It’s hard to overemphasize how culturally…
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Still learning, ten years on
Going through my inbox the other day, an email caught my attention. It invited me to participate in a research project examining “caregiver burden” in families of children with medical complexity. I completed the survey, but I also wrote to the research team to ask about their choice of language. By using the word “burden,”…
