The tragically hip and the tragical blip: Anne faces glioblastoma, a fatal cancer of the brain My wife Anne has been stricken by an incurable, highly aggressive form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma: Glioblastoma – Wikipedia Voici un lien en français: https://www.braintumour.ca/fr/types_de_tumeurs_cerebrales/glioblastome/ Her life expectancy is about 12 to..
Glioblastoma and Bohemian Waxwings: Birds for Anne Le texte français suit le texte anglais. Bohemian Waxwings, last winter in Domaine de Maizerets, Quebec City. Photo credit Leigh Bateman My wife Anne, who has terminal brain cancer, known as glioblastoma, is a bird and nature lover who is soothed in her suffering by such images. These..
The Art of Love: A song for Anne The short poem which appears at the end of this posting is a villanelle I wrote based on Elizabeth Bishop’s sublime work “One Art.” It is dedicated to my wife Anne, who has recently been diagnosed with and operated for sudden-onset brain cancer. The..
Caribou The Quebec artist and poet Anne-Marie Labreque dedicated this marvelous poem to my wife Anne, who has brain cancer. L’artiste et poète québécoise Anne-Marie Labreque a dédié ce merveilleux poème à mon épouse Anne, atteinte d’un cancer du cerveau. My English translation follows the original French. À Anne McBryde, avec amitié et affection…
Childhood Meatloaf and Anne/ Le pain de viande de l’enfance et Anne La version française de cette vignette suit la version anglaise. When I was a child, growing up in Georgetown, Ontario (1955-1964), my parents were struggling financially. One way that my mother devised to economize was to bake meatloaf cut with breadcrumbs. A lot..
My wife Anne has brain cancer/ Mon épouse Anne est atteinte d’un cancer du cerveau La version française de ce compte-rendu suit la version anglaise. Anne had emergency brain surgery on Monday, May 12. The operation lasted about five hours and was deemed a “success” in so far as the surgical team managed..
Haiku for a beloved friend on her birthday The fog of a dream: Desolation yields a shrine, Your steadfast friendship. A haiku is a type of Japanese poem that always uses the same number of syllables in a three-line format: the first line is five syllables the second line is seven syllables the..
May 5, 2025 marked 80 years since Canadian troops liberated Holland from the Nazis Written by my friend Maria van der Velden Yesterday marked 80 years since Canadian troops liberated Holland from the Nazis. My mother’s family lived in Bakel, Brabant at the time, running a combination cafe/pub/bakery and it’s depicted in the first photo…
The Public Speaking Blues: Childhood and Adolescence in a Performance Anxiety Funk When I was attending Chapel Street elementary school in Georgetown, Ontario, back in the 1960s, public speaking was an integral part of the curriculum in the senior grades. And terror was the order of the day. My public speaking anguish typically..
Otter/Loutre Anne-Marie Labrecque is a Quebec artist and poet. Here is my English translation of her poem entitled “Otter” followed by the original French. Anne-Marie Labrecque est une artiste et poète québécoise. Voici ma traduction en anglais de son poème intitulé ” Loutre “, suivie de l’original en français. Otter You spin and twirl,..