Family caregivers: A cry for help The Canadian government is being petitioned to provide support for family caregivers, for the reasons and according to the terms and conditions outlined below. Being a family caregiver can be a 24/7 job. The task is daunting, sometimes undoable. In addition to providing benefits and compensation, governments..
Anne’s New Aroma* A Free Verse Poem on Scent, Memory, and Love Anne’s aroma has changed, a peppery edge now hovers in the air, not in the least unpleasant, but absolutely insistent, a rich pungency, as if the world itself has pressed close to her skin. There is yeast there, too, the scent of bread..
A Massage of Love For Anne, the medium is the massage, leaving a message of love. My hands know what your voice cannot shape: gentle circles carved into the nape where pain sits heavy, and hope is feather-light. The pads of my thumbs learn the language of the body, the subtle sighs, the way..
Elegy for Anne Dignity in the Smallest Items and Rituals She wears a silver pin each morning, a glint of memory pressed against her collar, where hands tremble but do not falter. Glioblastoma gnaws at her edges: balance lost, hours drifting like loose threads, the map of home blurred in winter fog. Still, Anne combs..
Attending a Séance, London, Ontario, January 1969 When I was 16 years old in Grade 12 at Oakridge High School in London, Ontario, I first experienced puppy love, with all the attendant tail-wagging and barking. The year was 1969. The object of my baying and howling was a Grade 11 student named Cathy Reed, who..
Colouring Between the Lines For Anne A Free Verse Reflection Anne brings the world into focus; her careful hands select each crayon like a memory, the coral blush of a peony vase, the iridescent red of a ruby-throated hummingbird, the soft blue of the scarf a friend knit for winter’s bite. She picks her..
Nightmare of Letting Go (In response to the Mary Oliver quote below) Shadows will linger where your laughter used to thrive, Night’s edges have begun to sharpen with the ache of impending absence. I will reach for you and grasp only emptiness; Our space, so much colder, will have betrayed my trembling hope. Memories will..
Anne’s New Year Banquet: Spicing Up Fate A Tale of Resilience, Laughter, and Sichuan Peppercorns Back in the swirling mists of early May – when the maple leaves were barely awake and Anne’s neurons were staging an Olympic relay – she awoke from emergency brain surgery with a sense of place that was disconcertingly certain…
Heather: A Gentle Benediction Elegiac Free Verse for Our Palliative Care Volunteer Heather – named for the white bloom* that threads protection through wild hills, good fortune’s quiet blossom, a wish released into the hush of a winter morning. She arrives at our abode gentle as petals, breathing colour into Anne’s world, her soothing laughter..
Anne: Laughing Heartily in the Darkness In the marrow of winter, when the world outside is a hush and grief gnaws the bones of night, somehow, laughter bubbles up, raw, defiant, unstoppable. We hold each other, trembling, as if clasping the last ember before the onset of eternal darkness. Your eyes, Anne, flicker with..