Last night I went to a holiday celebration featuring Justin Trudeau. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to one of these large political events and I wanted to go just in case I am unable to in the future. And it is always exciting to see people campaigning in the hopes of getting elected, especially when there seems to be some momentum happening.

One feature that I liked was having Justin in the middle of the room while he spoke. There was no lectern or any teleprompters which was also effective. The introduction by MP Hedy Fry was short and sweet and Trudeau’s speech was positive and encouraging.

I was a bit disappointed with the event organizers for not thinking about seniors and people with disabilities who had no hope of seeing anything in the throngs of people. And I was really upset when I saw some seniors who had arrived early being moved to seats against the wall to make room for young people to stand on a platform so that the visuals would be appealing on camera. I was told that it was ‘just the way it is’ by the young volunteer who shuffled the old folks to the back wall.

So, I made it my mission to make sure that Justin stopped to talk with a woman in a wheelchair who was there with her assistance dog. I spoke to one of his local team and drew her attention to the woman and she got the message through. Then I got a great shot of him talking with Zosia Ettenberg .

And right after he talked with her, he made his way to the door. That’s when the photo at the top was taken and sent to me today via e-mail.

In today’s Vancouver Courier (pA19), there is an article that tells about the MS Public Education Forum held last month in Surrey. I was pleased to see that they were able to get some media in Vancouver as there are so many competing interests. I was also pleased to see the mention of ‘nerve pain’ in the description of symptoms of multiple sclerosis because most people don’t know about or think about it. It wasn’t too long ago that people with MS were told that pain was not part of the disease, yet it is for about 50% of us. While only about 4% of us get trigeminal neuralgia from MS, it is the most horrific of all the nerve pains.

One line that was used in this article and the promotional material talked about it being “an exciting time to be living with MS.”  It may be a time where we have more hope for effective treatments and perhaps one day a known cause and a cure. But it’s never an exciting time to be living with this type of disease.

Exciting?? Not really . . . hopeful? Perhaps.

Earlier this year I decided to do something with my mother’s photos and other treasures. I found an article about her aunt’s 100 year birthday in 1998 and Joy Metcalfe was interviewed for it. I knew we were related to the Metcalfes of Boundary Bay fame but I hadn’t taken the time to look into it.

I figured that someone as well-known as Joy Metcalfe would be easy to find and she was. I wrote her an e-mail and she responded. She suggested I contact her brother-in-law, Len Metcalfe, and his wife Dushka.

I called Len in late February and we talked a bit. We made tentative plans to connect in the near future. As my biological mother’s health deteriorated, I contacted both of my sisters to encourage them to come out to be present for her death, but only Miriam came. Since she was only going to be in Vancouver for a week, I suggested we contact Len and visit him. As he was the first cousin of our mother, we are first cousins once removed.

Miriam and I went to Richmond on Friday, April 26. We learned a lot about the Evans family, including more information about their wealth. He showed us a photo of the house that his grandfather — our great-grandfather — built at 15th and Hemlock, just across the street from General McRae’s mansion, Hycroft. We learned that the Evans children played with the McRae children.

Later that evening I received a phone call to let me know that our biological mother, Betty (nee Evans) Fleming, had died.

When I first started work at GF Strong Rehab Centre in 1995, I was hired into a position on the Community Outreach Service. The service was a multidisciplinary group of health professionals to act as a liaison between our centre and other health facilities in the province as well as follow-up with clients after their discharge home to see how they were doing as well as get feedback on their services at our centre.

Part of my orientation to the work done at GFS was to meet with some of the key staff, including Walt Lawrence. He had affectionately assumed the informal nickname of “the quadfather”, after the death of former MLA Doug Mowat in 1992. At least that’s what I remember.

I was nervous the first time I met Walt in his office on the spinal cord floor. I had little experience with spinal cord injuries. I had met Rick Hansen out at UBC in 1988 but I could at least shake his hand. The high-level quadriplegia is scarier. Fortunately, with Walt, it didn’t take long to see beyond the sip-and-puff wheelchair.

Over the years, Walt supported me in my other projects, notably my work with people who have aphasia. And he is on the board of the BC Rehab Foundation , the first organization to give the BC Aphasia Centre a grant to build a website.

Two days ago, Walt and I met up for a chat. I so longed to be back in a position to help people. I don’t want to be a person needing help. Walt suggested that there are still ways that I can help, and they will unfold if I trust in my life path.

As we made our way to our meeting room and back to the lobby, Walt had multiple interactions with his community, the people he inspires. He greeted all of them by name and exchanged friendly comments.

I asked him if I could take a photo with him. He thought it would be a good idea to pose in front of some inspirational words in the lobby. I thought about all the things I wanted to change. Under the word ‘change’ was the word ‘inspire.’

That’s what Walt does every day in his job. And his life.

Thanks, Walt.

Well, it was a busy week for me. I was invited to attend the opening reception of the Women’s Campaign School hosted by the Canadian Women Voters Congress . I had been co-chair of the campaign school as well as President of the organization. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. It is really encouraging to see so many of our graduates now holding office at all three levels of government.

I brought a friend with me and asked her to take photos of me with all of these women I had worked with and spent time with. I didn’t take advantage of it before but I realize now that maybe I’ll never have the chance to do this again.

I am pleased that one of my board recruits, Trina Isakson, is now the chair of the board. I worked hard on developing a relationship with SFU before moving on and it looks solid now. The abbreviated tag line that I developed ‘educate • encourage • inspire’ is still in use. And the very best of all is that the organization has survived the transition from a ‘pan-partisan’ organization to a non-partisan charitable organization. Navigating changes like that required a steady hand and a thick skin.

The notable ‘electeds’  and formerly elected who were also in attendance: Hon. Mary Collins, former MP, Hon. Penny Priddy, former MP, MLA, and more, Jane Thornthwaite, MLA, Linda Riemer, MLA, Adriane Carr, Vancouver city council.

I hope I’m well enough to attend the next event.

Now I’ll need to rest for a week . . .

On Wednesday evening, I went out to Surrey for an educational forum on “Current and Emerging Therapies” hosted by the MS Society. The organizers told me they were expecting about 50 people but were surprised that 147 had registered. I jokingly told them that if they had put my name on the poster, we might have been able to draw more! I’m not a neurologist but I think there are many of us in the MS Community who have very interesting stories and many of us have a lot of knowledge. One thing that this new MS community doesn’t really know about me is that I know a lot of people.

Some of my friends and supporters came to the event and I appreciated that a lot. One of them volunteered her husband to come and film my presentation, and I am so thrilled that he did because it has been a long time since I’ve spoken publicly about anything. I was pretty relaxed seeing the warm and friendly faces in the room.

The hardest part of putting the presentation together was keeping it to 10 minutes. My story is complex and there are a lot of details. But now that I have the arc of a basic story, I can adjust it to different audiences. One day I hope to speak to a room of doctors and/or medical students to encourage them to maintain their curiosity and question everything and everyone, even if that person is a well-established specialist.

I got really good feedback from people and the most special feedback was from one of my MS mentors who told me that my presentation was much better than the neurologist’s. The difference, of course, was that I was telling my story and tried to stay optimistic. The neurologist gave information on drugs. Most of the information she gave is widely available online, and most of us are keeping up-to-date. However, as I was there, I enjoyed hearing a summary.

I hope I can get a chance to do this again.