A Letter to Anne Tyler A note of sorrow and gratitude Dear Anne Tyler, I hope you’ll forgive the forwardness of this letter from a stranger, but I felt I needed to write. My name is Robert McBryde, and I want to tell you about the Anne in my life—my wife, Anne—who has become one..
Facing the abyss in the fall of our lives La version française de cette très courte histoire suit la version anglaise. It was a beautiful fall day in early October, 2023, when Anne and I were still living in Dijon, France. We were heading for Mâcon for a day trip, on a local..
Tongue tied: Brain cancer as a stealthy thief A striking characteristic of growing up in southern Ontario, more specifically in Georgetown and London, in the 1950s and 1960s, was exposure to how my father handled the English language, especially idioms and expressions. Clearly Dad mimicked the movie actors and radio talk of his day,..
Taigu Ryokan was a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and poet of the Edo period, known for his unconventional lifestyle and unadorned, deeply personal poetry. https://allpoetry.com/Taigu-Ryokan Haiku’s more visual cousin, the haiga, unites a haiku poem, written in calligraphy, with a simple painting. https://poets.org/text/haiga-haiku-calligraphy-and-painting In our new world of shared grief and absurd wonder..
Anne is a moulting kitten: Chemotherapy is the culprit My darling wife Anne is moulting. Her hair is falling out in clumps, the ravages of three weeks of intensive chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Our home is sprinkled with a thick layer of her hair, just as it is after we visit our son..
Mellow Yellow Anne: Brain Cancer and Strangely Chilling Out My wife Anne is currently undergoing three weeks of intensive radiation and chemotherapy treatments. The treatments are leaving her extremely nauseous and totally exhausted. But for lengthy periods, she is preternaturally mellow, chilled out, totally detached from the trials and tribulations of everyday..
Weetabix Revisited in the Wake of Brain Cancer Until my wife Anne was suddenly stricken by glioblastoma, the very aggressive, incurable form of brain cancer that befell her a mere six weeks ago, she could not live without her daily hit of Weetabix. Even on Christmas morning, she devoured a delicious bowl of this..
A Hotline To Treatment: Getting Through and Feeling Blue In the summer of 1964, when I was 12 years old, our family move to London, Ontario, coinciding in my case with the sudden onslaught of puberty, a ferocious hormonal maelstrom that transformed me into an obsessive pop music listener. My favourite DJ in those days..
An update on Anne’s suffering from radiation treatments and chemotherapy Like life itself A world of beauty, Ikebana floral art: Fleeting poetry. My wife Anne is afflicted with glioblastoma, an incurable form of brain cancer. Glioblastoma – Wikipedia https://www.braintumour.ca/fr/types_de_tumeurs_cerebrales/glioblastome/ Anne is currently suffering from severe nausea stemming from the intensive radiation treatments..
The author and photographer Doris Brocke is an extraordinary talent. https://dorisbrocke.wixsite.com/rhubarbtoroses/services Doris has kindly given my wife Anne the gift of her book, which offers solace and support, as Anne struggles with the incurable brain cancer that has befallen her: The tragically hip and the tragical blip: Anne faces glioblastoma, a fatal cancer of..