Pieces of Our Love: Life’s Puzzle for Anne Each day, Anne turns the cardboard squares over, edges searching for edges, her fingertips remembering the shape of wholeness long before the picture is clear. Puzzles are her refuge now, when words sometimes stumble and days dissolve, unthreading their careful patterns. She fits colour to colour,..
Grieving in Slow Motion Slow-motion grieving, the hours pooling thick as honey, Each heartbeat stretched, diluted in a nightmare where Anne’s laughter echoes through the hospital’s hush. The world blurs: I move as if underwater, amputated slowly, limb by limb, no anaesthetic, pain refusing to subside, the promise of waking never kept. Time is..
Falling in Love with another Anne Or how I’ve fallen madly in love with the same, yet radically different, woman twice Once feisty Anne, her laughter sharp, opinion a shield, principle her armour, she’d pace the halls of life, anxiety folded taut, but neat, beneath a silk scarf, eyes tracing the lines of every..
Anne’s Smile A poem of resilience and wonder Anne lies beneath the shadow, the whisper of brain cancer curling in her mind. Yet each morning, she greets the world with a smile – warm taffy, slow and sweet, suffusing everything around her with serene light. Her smile – unbidden, luminous – drifts across rooms,..
A Woman with Heart For Anne, this Valentine’s Day A heart in every room – stone, cloth, glass – Anne, collector of the world’s pulse, your shelves hold tributes, tender and small, while your own heart, the true north in this house, expires quietly beneath hospital lights. You taught me to find heart everywhere:..
Anne Enters a New Phase of her Journey, on the Road to Find Out On Wednesday, February 11, Anne was admitted to St, Vincent’s hospice in Ottawa, for 24/7 palliative care Anne arrives through the sliding glass of the hospice, wind at her back, arms encircling a blanket – parrot-green, macaw-red – stitchwork humming..
Slay Day/ la Journée Slay La version française de cette petite annonce suit immédiatement la version anglaise. Today marks Slay Day, a significant occasion as the Slay Society, proudly rooted in Ottawa, Ontario, but with a much broader reach, rallies to shine a spotlight on the formidable dragon that is glioblastoma. This aggressive form of..
Anne’s Song A Free Verse Poem You have always kept your songs close, Quiet as sunrise tucked behind evening curtains, Shy – embarrassed, you say – Afraid the melody might stumble, That your voice might stray from the path, That the world would hear you sing And think the tune misplaced. But I have listened,..
The Clumsiest Caregiver’s Compression Stocking Catastrophe A desperate, loving, and very foolishly rhyming confession I’m the world’s worst caregiver, it’s honestly shocking, Poor Anne, my beloved, stands noble but rocking On the edge of collapse, as I fumble –such bungling! Shower time’s chaos, she’s slipping and sloshing, Faucets drip, towels tumble; I’m cloddish and..
Following up on World Cancer Day I was invited to tell my wife Anne’s story and my own by the organizers of #WorldCancerDay. 🧡 Whether you’re living with, or have survived cancer, are a caregiver, a family member, or a friend, everyone has a story. Share your story here: https://www.worldcancerday.org/share-your-story 👉 Or read my brief..