Upon Being Banished from the Palliative Care Ward, April 15, 2026 Anne sits alone in her erstwhile chamber where sunlight no longer spills. Silent, ineffable words lost somewhere in the hush of her transfigured mind, yet nothing escapes her notice. She counts each kindness of nurses, counsellors, personal caregivers, by its weight, the shape..
What you don’t see: The invisible realities of living with and caring for a person with a brain tumour Believe it or not, we’re approaching May, which is Brain Tumour Awareness Month, and the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada is launching a national campaign called “What You Don’t See.” Brain tumours impact every part of life in ways..
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,..
Love, loss and legacy: From neurosurgeon to patient, from wife to caregiver I thought you might be interested in this story that was recently posted concerning Gina Gentili, whose husband, Dr. Fred Gentili (a renowned neurosurgeon practicing in Toronto) passed from glioblastoma: https://www.braintumour.ca/stories/love-loss-and-legacy-from-neurosurgeon-to-patient-from-wife-to-caregiver/. Gina speaks a lot about caregiving and shared resources for other caregivers. ..
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..
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..
I was interviewed by Trina Boyko Content Writer for the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada. The title of her article: Caring for Anne: A husband’s journey through glioblastoma Here is how it opens: “From the moment Robert McBryde picks up the phone, there’s a flurry of activity in the background. As one person leaves, another..
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..
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..