Our Last Birthday Together: St. Vincent’s Hospital Palliative Care Unit, March 10, 2026 The nurses brought in the birthday breakfast with quiet hands, the early light of dawn trembling, uncertain, like the hush in Anne’s voice. Anne smiled, the skin around her lips softening as if time could not bear to bruise her further…
For Anne, Who Still Loves the Soundscape of Dr. Seuss In the thinning light of evening, your hands still reach for colours that rhyme. The gentle tumble of Seuss’s words spills like bright marbles across the quiet hospital room. Perhaps they remind you that the world can stay playful, even when the body forgets how…
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..
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’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..
The Fox / Le Renard By / Par Anne-Marie Labreque Quebec artist and poet L’artiste et poète québécoise Poem translated by Robert McBryde Le poème original en français suit immédiatement la traduction. The original French poem immediately follows the English translation. Fox: Carnivorous mammal, similar to a wolf but smaller in size..
The Gift of Concentric Rings* From Anne, Whose Hands Are Generous On May 12, 2025, Anne was rushed to the operating table for emergency surgery to remove as much of the metastasizing brain cancer that could be extracted without rendering her entirely dysfunctional. Just before going under the proverbial knife, she gave me three of..