Posted on December 24, 2020 under Storytelling with 4 comments

Christmas stalking just took on a whole new meaning!

I think the polar bear is interested in my presence (presents)

(Thanks to Pete MacDonald for braving the elements and staring down this huge bear to take this amazing picture!)

I am filled with gratitude. This will be a Christmas unlike any other for all of us. We so desperately want to be together and to experience family, friends and old traditions. Sadly, this won’t be possible for most of us because the pandemic has changed so many things in 2020.

I think many of you would agree that Covid-19 has upset the apple cart but for many of us who haven’t been directly affected health wise, it has been little more than an inconvenience to our normal way of life.

However, this has deeply affected people in so many ways. Our seniors in care facilities have suffered tremendously. Despite the heroic efforts of nursing home staffs, not being able to see family and loved ones has been awful. People with mental health issues have also suffered terribly.

Health care workers and those assisting our most vulnerable populations in care facilities are heroes. They have put themselves in harm’s way every single day for months on end. We owe these people a huge debt of gratitude.

Ditto for all of those other essential workers who are mostly ignored by society until it’s crunch time. They have proven their true value when they were needed most.

I am truly grateful to my family and friends for continuing to be a part of my latest adventure. I must admit that I never feel lonely or homesick because a day rarely goes by that I don’t hear from somebody.

I am especially thankful to all of you who continue to read my posts. Today is number 1,1178. Your dedication and support is so appreciated.

I am most grateful for my good health. With good health, anything is possible. So far, so good but I take nothing for granted.

We are not out of the woods yet with the pandemic. We all know this. For me, I have adopted my marathon runner mentality. A marathon is a test of physical and mental endurance. I think my fellow runners would acknowledge that the mental part is the toughest. You can’t look too far ahead. Thinking about the finish line too early in the race is a recipe for disaster.

We’re well into the coronavirus marathon and yes, with a vaccine, the finish line is closer than it was a few weeks ago. But we still have some more miles to put on before we can return to any semblance of normalcy. Rather than wish my life away, I have decided to focus on the short term… the next mile. There’s a lot of living to be done between now and the end of the pandemic. I don’t plan to waste this precious time pleading for it to end.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

Best wishes.

Len

 

 

Posted on September 12, 2020 under Storytelling with one comment

Road warriors

 

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” Genesis 4:9

Death, that most unwelcome of guests will pay all of us a visit someday. Every minute of every day, somewhere on the earth, someone takes their last breath. Those of us left behind grieve and mourn. The pain dulls with time, but it never leaves entirely.

One year ago today, our youngest brother, Thomas Patrick MacDonald took his leave. He had suffered the scourge of cancer for the better part of 10 years and finally succumbed. Even though he knew, and we knew that his time was up, his passing left all of us bereft. I know many of my readers have had family members pass in the last 12 months. Every time you post a picture of your mother, your son, or your grandmother, the pain is visceral. It leaps off the page.

I have thought of Tom nearly every day since he died, during one of the most challenging years of my life.

In this space, I have documented Tom’s memorable life. He was a pretty remarkable guy who had boundless energy to go along with countless spreadsheets! We often referred to him as ‘Tornado Tom’ as he always seemed to have somewhere to go and something to do. More often than not, he was doing something for someone else. He was an experienced marathon runner and coached many other people to do their first marathon. He volunteered at the cancer clinic in Victoria with boundless optimism and empathy while he was dealing with his own suffering.

My brother Gerard also possesses the maniacal marathoner’s DNA. It must be a family trait as I too ran a few in my day but nothing compared to these two. I’ve lost count but I think they each ran more than 20 marathons, several of them together. Misery loves company! Of course, I mean the pain of running 26.2 miles (42km) and not sibling rivalry!

Today they will run together again.

Gerard was supposed to have collected his Boston Marathon finisher’s medal earlier this year, but Covid-19 put an end to that. Gerard is a doctor and, while disappointed that the race would not proceed as scheduled, he realized that there were bigger fish to fry with a global pandemic.

To honor Tom’s memory, Gerard is running a marathon today in Amherst, Nova Scotia. By the time some of you crawl out of bed, he will be well into his run. The P.D.’s are early birds and he’ll hit the pavement at 6:00 a.m. This is not an official marathon. Many of his friends from the Amherst Striders running group will accompany him for parts of the run. Family and friends will be there to cheer him along the way.

While there is apt to be a bit of heaviness in his heart, Tom’s indomitable spirit will lift him up when his energy is flagging as it certainly will. It is often said that there are two halves to a marathon: the first 30 km and the last 12km. I would never classify the first 30km as “easy” but it’s not too bad. Right around this time, weird things start happening to your body. I don’t have the scientific explanation of what happens when your body slowly falls apart! The last 12km can be quite excruciating.

I mentioned that Gerard and Tom would be running together one last time. Yes, Gerard will be carrying some of Tom’s ashes.

And if Gerard dares to falter, there is one other person who will be there to give him a swift kick in the arse. Mother T., our late mom, who watched Gerard run his first Boston Marathon in 2001, will join her boys on the run. I will be there in spirit.

“Long may you run”, Gerard.

He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.

He is my brother’s keeper.

Posted on September 8, 2020 under Storytelling with 3 comments

The late Ronnie Gillis

I interviewed Ronnie  5 years ago in early September. He died last week. He was one of the most interesting people I had met and I enjoyed hearing his remarkable life while sitting in his living room on Dunroamin Road. I thought it might be appropriate to re-post this story. Godspeed, Ronnie.

The first thing you notice when you enter Ronnie Gillis’ carefully manicured property is an old ride-on lawn mower. When you have a sizeable acreage this is understandable; and more so when one considers that the driver of this piece of equipment is within arm’s reach of 90 years of age. I am scarcely out of the car when he walks spryly onto the deck to welcome me. I am soon to find out that Ronnie has spent most of his life driving things.

There was a time when being able to drive anything seemed a stretch. When he was 13, Ronnie developed blood poisoning. For a month he lay in a hospital bed with the very real possibility of losing one of his legs. Only through the intervention of Dr. MacIsaac was his limb saved. However, this proved to be the end of Ronnie’s schooling, as the 3 kilometer walk to and from school in Malignant Cove proved impossible.

But this setback did not prevent Ronnie from living a long, busy, active life. Far from it.

While his father was in the services in the Second World War, Ronnie worked hard tending to the family farm. He raised two colts and cared for the other farm animals. During one memorable winter storm, his mother and their neighbor, a Mrs. Mac Kenzie, got stranded in Antigonish. The roads were impassable. Ronnie and his siblings managed to keep the household going. When it became apparent that the women wouldn’t be getting home any time soon, Ronnie wandered over to the Mac Kenzie’s house knowing that they had a dog. But it wasn’t just any dog. It was a beast, and some say as ferocious as the one in Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary novel, “The Hound of the Baskervilles”.

Ronnie, although slightly intimidated, knew that the dog would be hungry. He brought him some food; the dog was appreciative and befriended him. He brought the dog bones and scraps every day of its owner’s absence.

After three days, the road still weren’t open and so Mrs. Gillis and Mrs. Mackenzie decided to walk on foot from town to Doctor’s Brook, going the back road through Cloverville and Big Marsh. They waded through hip-deep snow and found accommodation each evening along the way. Two days later they arrived home. When Mrs. Mackenzie got to her house, the dog was very happy, needless to say. When she entered the house, she gasped, for there on the floor stood a small pile of bones. Her immediate thought was that an intruder had broken in, only to be eaten by her four legged friend.

In his late teens Ronnie bought his first truck from Phonse Sears at Eastern Auto. And no, this wasn’t for driving around to impress young women. This was a working vehicle and it didn’t take too long for Ronnie to find employment hauling pulp. He worked for a spell with the Department of Highways and credits his supervisor, Rod “The Highways” Chisholm, for much of the good fortune that would befall him in his work career. You see, Rod gave him a letter of recommendation which turned out to be his ticket out of Nova Scotia to the “Boston States”.

His first job in the mid 50’s in Boston was with Railway Express, where he worked for 20 years. The work day only started at 9:30 A. M. But Ronnie was an early bird because of his life growing up on a farm. A friend suggested that he take a job driving one of the early morning school bus routes in Wellesley, a suburb of Boston. When Railway Express went out of business in 1975, Ronnie became assistant superintendent of transportation for the entire Wellesley School Board. His knowledge of the streets in and around Boston became legendary. He continued to work for the Board until his retirement in 1986.

During his time in Boston he met some very prominent citizens, the president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology being one of them. The first time they met, the president asked him the routine questions one would expect in a first encounter. “I’m from Canada,” said Ronnie. Upon further prodding he explained “I’m from Nova Scotia; a place called Doctor’s Brook”.   The president’s eyes lit up. “Oh, you must live between Dunn’s Rock and The Brook!” Needless to say, Ronnie was flabbergasted. You see, for over a quarter century, geologists and other scholars from the New England States had made an annual pilgrimage to Crystal Cliffs to study, among other things, the composition of rocks. They were intimately aware of the coast line along the Northumberland Strait.

After his retirement in Wellesley, Ronnie and his wife, Celestine, decided to move back to Canada. He hinted that it might have been his wife who made that decision. I asked him if they ever quarreled. He was quick to point out that “Celestine was the boss of the house.” (A good answer – the Editor). They lived at first in the town of Antigonish but eventually built a house out on Dunroamin Road in Doctor’s Brook, where he still resides.

Celestine died in 2007 and Ronnie remains in their home, tending to all of the household duties and the yard work. He figures that his active lifestyle has contributed to his longevity. He goes to church regularly, something that his mother insisted from an early age. He is a dyed in the wool Boston Red Sox fan and enjoyed their World Series wins in 2004, 2007 and 2013. Ronnie never took part in sports because of his leg injury as a teenager, and because he was simply too busy for most of his working life.

He is resourceful and independent. His upbringing demanded both.

As he escorts me to the door, I ask him about the lawnmower. Apparently he has taken it apart and put it back together more times than one can count. Has he ever entertained the thought of buying a new one, I muse? “No. Someone might steal it,” he replies, with a twinkle in his eye. I ask him to pose for a picture.

The boy from Dunroamin is done roamin’.