Reader's Digest

OUR SPECIAL HOLIDAY ISSUE

CONTENT CANADIANS TRUST DECEMBER 2018

THE POWER OF KINDNESS 9 Remarkable Stories PAGE 32

DO PLACEBOS THE DAY OUR DOG REALLY WORK? WAS KIDNAPPED PAGE 74 PAGE 90

A JOLLY JEWISH CHRISTMAS PAGE 70 OVERCOMING SOCIAL ANXIETY PAGE 40 HOW STELLA BOWLES THE RATTLESNAKE THAT SAVED WOULDN’T DIE A RIVER PAGE 54 CANADA’S AUTISMFRIENDLY TOWN PAGE 82

MEET SANTA’S POSTMASTER ...... 14 FAREWELL, WINTER SKIN! ...... 22 THE UPSIDES OF UNPLUGGING...... 150 A CHRISTMAS CAROL WORD POWER ...... 157 WAITING IS PAINFUL ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY

118 James Street North, Suite 200 • Hamilton, ON, Canada • L8R 2K7 Local: 905-525-5097 • Toll Free: 1-888-990-9249 • Fax: 1-866-714-5521 Email: [email protected] • www.healthcitycanada.ca Contents DECEMBER 2018

Cover Story Drama in Real Life 32 Extraordinary Acts of 54 The Rattler’s Revenge Canadian Kindness When a Texas man decapitated Nine remarkable achievements the poisonous snake threatening from the past year. his wife, he assumed that would REBECCA TUCKER be the end of it. He was wrong. NICHOLAS HUNE-BROWN Life Lesson 40 Ready to Party? Social anxiety and surviving the P. | holiday season. LEAH RUMACK 32

Food 44 Sunday-Cooking at the Shelter Serving healthy food to those who need it most. COREY MINTZ FROM THE LOCAL

Department of Wit 50 Off the Record A brief memoir about why I’ve decided not to write my memoirs. ARLENE AIKENS

PHOTOGRAPH BY AARON McKENZIE

COLIN WAY COLIN FRASER Vol. 193 | No. 1,155 DECEMBER 2018

Perspective Family 62 Wild Things 90 Reward: $500, No What entering my pet into Questions Asked a cat show taught me about While my father was in the the true nature of felines. late stages of Alzheimer’s, OMAR MOUALLEM FROM HAZLITT our family’s loyal hound was kidnapped. We had to get Heart him back—for his own sake, 70 A Holly Jolly but also for my dad. Jewish Christmas COURTNEY SHEA Holiday traditions don’t always have to be kosher. ROSE TEKEL RD Classic FROM UC OBSERVER 96 Andrea’s Gift How my daughter reminded Health me of the true meaning of the 74 Mind Over Meds holidays. ELIZABETH STARR HILL Placebos are more effective FROM READER’S DIGEST, than we think. DECEMBER 1966 ROBERT ANTHONY SIEGEL FROM SMITHSONIAN Humour 102 A Star Is Born Inspiration Comedian Mark Critch reflects 82 The Marvellous Making back on the kindergarten of Canada’s Most Autism- play that set the stage for Friendly Town his entire career. VALERIE HOWES FROM SON OF A CRITCH FROM TODAY’S PARENT Society 108 Crossing Over at Roxham Road Since 2017, thousands of asylum seekers have entered Canada by walking across P. | 74 the border in rural Quebec. Here are the stories of two such families. HEATHER ROBB

FROM MAISONNEUVE COHEN MATTHEW CHLOE CUSHMAN 73 53 20 13 122 116 Laughter, theBest Medicine Rd.ca Pointsto Ponder Life’s Like That CONRAD KIECHEL CONRAD KIECHEL throughdown generations. a messageofhopepassed When apractical jokebecomes Coming Up Watermelons LISAN JUTRAS Out ofTherapy theMost How toGet Health READER FAVOURITES Family FROM MARCH 1994 READER’S DIGEST , 138 130 160 152 128 101 Quotes That’s Outrageous! AsKidsSeeIt @ Work Editors’ Choice Society ROBERT KIENER young woman’s lifeforever. of recovery that changed a crash andmonths The fiery Catrin’s Way Long Back history. salmon packingplant makes Columbia’sBritish lastwild- Cannery’sThe Old New Era FROM HAKAI FRANCES BACKHOUSE rd.ca P. | | 12 70

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2018 | 3 Culture P. | 18 RD Recommends 10 Our top picks in TV, books and movies. DANIELLE GROEN

Health 22 Treating Dry Winter Skin How to best protect your epidermis against the ravages of cold weather. SAMANTHA RIDEOUT ART OF LIVING Health 28 What’s Wrong With Me? 10 Sea Change A medical mystery resolved. Hasan Hai convinces the men LISA BENDALL of Newfoundland and Labrador to get fishy for a good cause. CHRISTINA PALASSIO

The RD Interview 14 Wish Lists P. | 16 Dayna Robinson, the coordinator of Canada Post’s GET SMART! Santa Letter Writing Program, on popular toys, requests 150 13 Things You Should for peace and the meaning Know About Unplugging of Saint Nick. COURTNEY SHEA ANNA-KAISA WALKER

Pets 153 Trivia Quiz 16 Holiday Pet Safety Keep your furry friends merry 154 Brainteasers and bright by avoiding these 156 Sudoku common hazards. ANNA-KAISA WALKER 157 Word Power

5 Editor’s Letter 7 Contributors 8 Letters ISTOCK.COM/SPIRITARTIST (CAT) RICE; TERRY (PORTRAIT)

4 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Editor’s Letter

The Common Good

IF YOU’RE A DEVOTED READER OF THIS MAGAZINE, you know that one of the things that sets us apart from other publications is our commitment to telling stories of ordinary people doing exceptional things. For this holiday issue, we collected nine true tales about Canadians whose actions have had a significant impact over the past year. From dedicated activists to quick-thinking heroes, our cover story, “Extraordinary Acts of Canadian Kind- ness” (page 32), celebrates the remarkable ways in which people help others. Bold feats that alter the course of a life make for inspiring reading, of course. But that’s not to say that smaller gestures are any less important. The holiday season reminds me that simple deeds—making your partner’s morning coffee, shovelling your neighbour’s steps—are equally meaningful, especially when they become a habit. Taking time to check in with friends who have experienced a recent loss or a change in their circumstances is another invaluable way of showing you care. This special edition of Reader’s Digest, with almost 50 extra pages of features, also includes a moving story by journalist Courtney Shea about the kid- napping of her family’s dog (“Reward: $500, No Questions Asked,” page 90), the tale of a heart- warming tradition (“Coming Up Watermelons,” page 122), as well as a surprising health report on placebos (“Mind Over Meds,” page 74). From the team at Reader’s Digest, I wish you a happy, healthy holiday!

Send an email to

ROGER AZIZ ROGER [email protected] Published by the Reader’s Digest Magazines Canada Limited, Montreal, Canada Christopher Dornan Chairman of the Board Dominique Ritter Editor-in-Chief Ashley Leon Advertising, Head of Sales and Sales Strategy Executive Editor Stéphanie Verge Art Director John Montgomery Senior Editor Micah Toub Associate Art Director Danielle Sayer Graphic Designer Pierre Loranger Associate Editor Megan Jones Content Operations Manager Lisa Pigeon Editorial Intern Franca Mignacca Circulation Director Edward Birkett Contributing Editor Samantha Rideout Contributors: Arlene Aikins, Roger Aziz, Frances Proofreader Katie Moore Backhouse, Lisa Bendall, Linda Besner, Grant Callegari, Robert Carter, Mark Critch, Chloe Cushman, Marcel Danesi, Senior Researcher Lucy Uprichard Katy Dockrill, Aimée van Drimmelen, Aaron McKenzie Fraser, Researchers Martha Beach, Alyssa Danielle Groen, Clayton Hanmer, Elizabeth Starr Hill, Favreau, Matthew Halliday, Jaime Hogge, Valerie Howes, Steven Hughes, Nicholas Tessa Liem, Thomas Hune-Brown, Amanda Iannacito, Lisan Jutras, Conrad Kiechel, Rob Kiener, Susan Camilleri Konar, Kagan McLeod, Molander, Leslie Sponder Olivia Mew, Corey Mintz, Omar Mouallem, Christina Palassio, Copy Editors Chad Fraser, Amy Paul Paquet, Emily Press, Terry Rice, Sarah Richards, Ian Harkness, Richard Johnson Riensche, Heather Robb, Graham Roumieu, Leah Rumack, Pete Ryan, Julie Saindon, Courtney Shea, Robert Anthony Web Editor Brett Walther Siegel, Genevieve Simms, Rose Tekel, Rebecca Tucker, Conan Assistant Web Editor Robert Liwanag de Vries, Anna-Kaisa Walker, Colin Way, Victor Wong

THE READER’S DIGEST ASSOCIATION (CANADA) ULC President Brian Kennedy Legal Barbara Robins Product Manager, Magazine Marketing Mirella Liberatore

Production Manager Lisa Snow National Account Executives, Canada James Anderson, Suzanne Farago (Montreal), 121 Bloor St. E. Irena Koutcher, Robert Shaw (Vancouver), Melissa Silverberg Suite 430 Senior Project Manager Meri Ward Toronto, ON Head of Advertising Operations and Programmatic Adamo Calafati M4W 3M5 Head of Marketing Solutions Melissa Williams

TRUSTED MEDIA BRANDS President and Chief Executive Officer Bonnie Kintzer Editor-in-Chief, International Magazines Raimo Moysa

VOL. 193, NO. 1,155 COPYRIGHT © 2018 BY READER’S DIGEST MAGAZINES CANADA LIMITED. Reproduction in any manner in We acknowledge with whole or in part in English or other languages prohibited. All rights gratitude the financial reserved throughout the world. Protection secured under Inter- support of the Government of Canada. / Nous remercions le national and Pan-American copyright conventions. Publications Gouvernement du Canada pour son appui financier. Mail Agreement No. 40070677. Postage paid at Montreal. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to 5101 Buchan St., suite 300, Montreal, QC H4P 1S4. Print subscriptions, $34.50 a year, plus $8.99 postage, processing and hand ling. Please add applicable taxes. Outside Canada, $53.96 yearly, including postage, processing and handling. (Prices and postage sub- Reader’s Digest publishes 10 issues per year and may occasionally ject to change without notice.) ISSN 0034-0413. Indexed by the Cana- publish special issues (special issues count as two)‚ subject to dian Periodical Index. Single issue: $4.95. change without notice.

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6 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Contributors

EMILY PRESS VICTOR WONG (Illustrator, “How to (Illustrator, “What’s Get the Most Out of Wrong With Me?” herapy,” page 116) page 28)

Home base: Home base: Hamilton. Previously published Mississauga. Previously published in Nature Conservancy of Canada in Corporate Knights and The Walrus. Magazine and Inside Intercom. I’m It’s a mixture of fear and curiosity thankful that the stigma surround- that makes people so interested in ing seeing a “shrink” are fading. We medical-mystery stories. Readers are living in an era where it’s becom- want to know what potential prob- ing easier to speak about mental lems can happen to their bodies and health. People are realizing that their how they get resolved, just in case struggles don’t need to be severe for something similar pops up in their them to benefit from therapy. own lives.

LISAN JUTRAS REBECCA TUCKER (Writer, “How to Get (Writer, “he Extra- the Most Out of ordinary Kindness of herapy,” page 116) Canadians” page 32)

Home base: Home base: Toronto. Previously published in Toronto. Previously published in The Walrus and The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail and Toronto Life. The biggest misconception peo- I’m not sure I’m quite as brave as ple have about seeking therapy is some of the people I interviewed for that the first professional they meet is this story. Still, speaking with them the one they should work with (even has inspired me to practise a bit if sometimes that turns out to be the more patience with those around case). The dynamic you share with me this holiday season, from col- your therapist is as idiosyncratic as leagues to fellow shoppers to close any other relationship. family members.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 7 Letters READERS COMMENT ON OUR RECENT ISSUES

LETTER OF THE MONTH FORGOTTEN HEROES I really enjoyed “The ‘Farmerettes’” (September 2018). Having grown up on a farm in the 1960s, I learned from a very young age how much hard work is involved in running one. What the women in this story did during the war years was a superhuman effort, a testimony to their courage and strength. And they didn’t even have the “luxuries” we had in the ’60s, such as plumbing or appliances. More stories like this one need to be told so that future generations of women fully grasp our potential strength. Thank you for capturing a very important moment in time. ANGEL HORNE, Strathclair, Man.

8 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca A CALMING VOICE I thought I was eating healthfully, Thank you very much for the excellent I found myself gaining weight. Over editor’s letter “The Way We Worry” time, I became very ill and eventually (October 2018) and for the accompa- went to the hospital. Upon being nying story, “Taming the ‘What-Ifs.’” admitted, I learned that my heart rate I have a psychiatric practice and have was twice what it should have been shown both to many of my patients. and my liver and kidneys were in bad They have benefited from your well- shape. I received a pacemaker, and presented understanding of worry my doctors counselled me to adjust and anxiety. The therapeutic recom- my diet to include less salt. I now mendations you include in the story look for foods with the lowest sodium are accurate and helpful. content I can find and make sure to DR. STEPHEN B. STOKL, Newmarket, Ont. eat lots of salads. Today I’m back at a healthy weight. SOUND ADVICE TIM W. BROTHERHOOD, Barrie, Ont. Your story “25 Ways Salt Is Making You Sick” (September 2018) really Published letters are edited for length resonated with me. Last year, while and clarity.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

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Contribute Send us your funny jokes and anecdotes, and if we publish one in a print edition of Reader’s Digest, we’ll send you $50. To submit, visit rd.ca/joke. Original contributions (text and photos) become the property of The Reader’s Digest Magazines Canada Limited, and its affiliates, upon publication. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity, and may be reproduced in all print and electronic media. Receipt of your submission cannot be acknowledged.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 9 ART of LIVING

Hasan Hai convinces the men of Newfoundland and Labrador to get fishy for a good cause Sea Change BY CHRISTINA PALASSIO

PHOTOGRAPH BY TERRY RICE

! IT’S EARLY MORNING in Cape NL, an organization that uses equine- Spear, N.L. A van heads toward the assisted therapy to support people area’s iconic lighthouse as the sun living with mental-health issues. climbs out of the Atlantic. The vehicle The tidal wave of interest in the is full, but not with eager tourists calendar still surprises organizer hoping for a sunrise selfie. It’s packed Hasan Hai. “This all started when with photographers and crewmem- a friend posted a photo of a bearded bers on their way to meet mermen. merman on my Facebook page “MerB’ys,” actually. The water dwell- and wrote, ‘You should do a thing,’” ers are ready for their close-ups. And says Hai, who also founded the New- they look flipping fantastic. foundland and Labrador Beard and This marks the second year that a Moustache Club, a social group. group of bearded Newfoundlanders “When I put out an open call, I just have shed their shirts and pulled on thought it’d be me and a few random tails to pose as misters March, Decem- guys.” But 40 people followed up, and ber and company. Their mission: two months later there was a calendar. making a sassy calendar to support The funds donated to Spirit Horse a worthy cause. The first edition, in NL help people like Jennifer Mercer, 2017–18, sold more than 14,000 copies who contacted the charity’s founder, and raised $300,000 for Spirit Horse Erin Gallant, while struggling with

10 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Organizer Hasan Hai says that MerB’ys rarely pose for the calendar out of vanity: “It’s mostly to show a different side of masculinity or to break down social barriers.” READER’S DIGEST deep depression. “I couldn’t motiv- be emotional. And his son said, ‘Dad, ate myself to get out of bed,” she says. I’m so proud that you’re a MerB’y.’” “At first, I was afraid of horses, but Using a mythological creature to then you connect with them and challenge myths about masculinity they make you feel so comfortable. has proven to be a powerful idea. I don’t know where I’d be without Money raised this year will kick-start them and my work with Erin. I give Deconstructing Masculinity: Engaging thanks every day.” Men in Violence Prevention, a new With this year’s calendar, Hai wants program led by Violence Prevention to raise even more money and further NL, a coalition of 10 Newfoundland challenge people’s notions of what and Labrador–based organizations. constitutes masculinity: “There’s “Violence prevention has often a very narrow slot in been seen as a women’s which it’s deemed okay issue, and I don’t think to be a man, and that’s Hasan Hai is that’s the right way to so harmful,” he says. look at it,” says Kevin The 2019 MerB’ys are eager to continue O’Shea, the executive a bigger gang—38 in playing a role director of the Public total—and they’re more in changing Legal Information diverse, with different attitudes and Association of NL, gender identities, sexual who is involved in the orientations, body encourages others new initiative. “The only types, abilities and to get involved. way we’re going to be backgrounds. effective at prevention The group has also is to look at the mindset expanded its reach. Hai and some and culture that causes violence, to of his crew drove their “Mermob’ile” involve men and boys and to work from St. John’s to the west coast of collaboratively toward change.” Newfoundland, then flew to central Hai is eager to continue playing Labrador to connect with men across a role in changing attitudes and the province. In Twillingate, they met encourages others to get involved in Mark. “He broke down in tears talk- their communities: “Positive change ing about growing up in rural New- starts with the tiniest thing—literally foundland, where men had to act saying a kind word to someone,” a certain way,” remembers Hai. he says. “Just do something different, “He said he was doing this for his just keep pushing forward, and even- seven-year-old son, to show him that tually you’ll realize you’ve done men could be different, that they can something really grand.”

12 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Life’s Like That

HEY, WAIT A SECOND… ISN’T IT OBVIOUS? DATE: What do you do? ME: [Holds up menu] You just choose a meal from this book of food. @ARFMEASURES

MAYBE SOMEDAY I don’t think I have ever, even once in my life, plugged a USB cable in right side up on the first try. CHRIS EVANS, actor

IT TAKES FOREVER Two co-workers were talking about having to wait a long time to see their @_youhadonejob1 doctors. One of them said, “My doctor’s office encourages me to bring a GUILTY PLEASURES book to read while I wait.” I’m trying to shield my phone from “That’s nothing,” the other replied. onlookers because I’m embarrassed “My doctor’s office encourages me to by what they might see, but it’s just write a book while I wait.” slow-motion video of forks going into ROBERT HALSTEAD, Winnipeg slices of cake. @ORIGINALDANKSTA CAN YOU IMAGINE how awkward it would be if your pet went on your MY ABSOLUTE NO. 1 favourite phone and found the thousands of phrase to overhear is: “Just between pictures you have of them sleeping? you and me ...” @LAURAJAYLOVETTE RAINA DOURIS, radio host

CARPET: I’m just sick of people Send us your funny stories! They could walking all over me. be worth $50. See page 9 or visit @CHRISDOWNING rd.ca/joke for more details.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 13 THE RD INTERVIEW

Dayna Robinson, the coordinator of Canada Post’s Santa Letter Writing Program, on popular toys, requests for peace and the meaning of Saint Nick Wish Lists

BY COURTNEY SHEA ILLUSTRATION BY AIMÉE VAN DRIMMELEN

How long has Canada Post been answering letters sent to Santa? For 37 years. In that time, our North Pole office has responded to almost 30 million letters. We’ve written back in 39 different languages and Braille.

Who is “we,” exactly? Santa gets help from thousands of volunteers, a.k.a. “postal elves.” They are Canada Post employees, some of whom return from retirement just for this. Many have a tradition of getting together to do their work in groups over breakfast.

What do the letters to Santa say? Most start with, “How are you? How was your year?” Kids also have a lot of questions, which we try to answer. Some want to know if it’s true that Rudolph flies, if Mrs. Claus is doing

14 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca okay and whether Santa would like math test. And then you get the let- a healthier snack. ters where they just want everyone to be happy and loved. Are you a holiday-loving person all year round? Have you already put Has anyone actually asked for up decorations? world peace? I love, love Christmas. My family rolls Definitely, and Santa will make sure their eyes a bit, but I really thrive he addresses that in his response. during the holidays. I’m pretty tradi- In that instance, maybe he would tional, so starting in November, we encourage the young person to get have a Christmas tree, stockings involved in their community. and the music. What about puppies? In the Internet age, are as many kids We do get requests for puppies. still writing letters to Santa? Also, hamsters, birds and snakes. Last year we counted 1.6 million and Santa can’t make any promises. we’re actually getting more every year. We do get typed letters now. I’ve gotta ask: Have you ever been involved in a lump of coal situation? Any chance Santa might consider Honestly, we’re only dealing with replying to an email? the letters. I can say that sometimes No. Santa is a traditionalist. kids will write in their letter that they have done something bad. Are there toys that have remained It’s like Santa is their confessor. popular throughout the 37 years? We always get requests for teddy Aside from being the guy with a big bears, dolls, Lego and trucks. We have sack full of toys, what is the value lots of kids asking for plain old books. of Old Saint Nick? And then we’ve seen a lot of crazes Most of the letters are from children, come and go. I’m sure we all but we also get some from new par- remember Tickle Me Elmo. ents, pets and older people who have been writing since they were Any unusual requests that don’t fit kids. Santa lifts everyone’s spirits under the tree? and I think that’s really valuable. Some kids ask for things that aren’t for themselves. They want their To receive an answer from Santa before brother’s broken arm to heal or they Christmas, letters must include a return want their sister to get an A on her address and be mailed by December 10.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 15 PETS

Keep your furry friends merry and bright by avoiding these common hazards Holiday Pet Safety BY ANNA-KAISA WALKER

■ CHOCOLATE ■ XYLITOL By far the top holiday pet emer- Beware of this sweetener, added to gency is chocolate poisoning in candy and mints. “Even a small dogs, says Troye McPherson, pres- amount can lead to complete liver ident of the Canadian Veterinary failure in dogs,” says McPherson. “It’s Medical Association. “I can’t tell one of the greatest dangers because you how many I’ve made vomit,” most people aren’t aware of it.” she says. Dark chocolate is the most toxic; a five-ounce square can kill ■ TOXIC PLANTS a two-kilogram Yorkie. Poinsettias, commonly thought to be poisonous, aren’t as dangerous ■ CHRISTMAS TREES as they’re believed to be, says Some cats love to chew on pine nee- McPherson, although they can dles, which is why McPherson rec- cause nausea and vomiting. How- ommends buying a tree that hasn’t ever, lilies and other yuletide been sprayed with pesticides. Be blooms such as paperwhites and sure to tether it to the wall in case amaryllis, can be toxic, as can of climbers and unplug the string mistle toe and holly. To decide lights when you’re not around to whether it’s worth rushing to a hos- supervise. Forgo tinsel, which can pital, call the Pet Poison Helpline

get stuck in cats’ intestines. or your local veterinarian. ISTOCK.COM/SPIRITARTIST

16 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Presented by LOOK GOOD FEEL BETTER

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Our top picks in TV, books and movies RD Recommends BY DANIELLE GROEN

MY BRILLIANT FRIEND Two girls grow up poor in Naples: they’re both razor-sharp, but Lila burns a little brighter and Elena knows it. Their compli- 1cated and competitive friendship stretches over the four books and 60 years that make up Elena Ferrante’s international block- buster. For this eight-episode adaptation of the first novel, set in the 1950s, director Saverio Costanzo auditioned nearly 9,000 children before choosing his young leads. Nov. 18.

DID YOU KNOW? My Brilliant Friend is HBO’s first non-English-language series and stars mostly unknown local actors speaking in a heavy regional dialect. Happily, there are subtitles.

ALL THE LIVES WE NEVER LIVED 2 Anuradha Roy Real-life figures—the German painter Walter Spies, HBO OF COURTESY ) the Indian singer Begum Akhtar—mingle with fictional creations in Anuradha Roy’s first novel since Sleeping on Jupiter. The story is told by sixtysomething horticulturalist Myshkin, but its beating heart is his free-spirited mother, Gayatri, who ran away from her marriage and young son MY BRILLIANT FRIEND BRILLIANT MY

in 1930s India for a life of art. Nov. 20. (

18 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca ) © 2017 DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. RIGHTS ALL INC. ENTERPRISES, DISNEY 2017 © ) MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS 3 House of Cards creator Beau Willimon is no stranger to political power plays, and his script for this epic battle of the monarchs doesn’t stint on intrigue. Mary Stuart (Saoirse Ronan) and Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie) each believe they’re the rightful heir to the British throne—but only Liz has an on-call executioner. The smart money is on one of these stars to claim the best-actress Oscar denied to them both last year. Dec. 7. MARY POPPINS RETURNS POPPINS MARY

TO THE RIVER MARY POPPINS RETURNS 4 Don Gillmor 5 In this reboot of the children’s In 2005, at the age of 48, the classic, Emily Blunt picks up Julie author’s estranged brother, Andrews’s levitating umbrella David, parked his truck and Lin-Manuel Miranda fares outside of Whitehorse and better than Dick Van Dyke at walked into the Yukon the cockney accent. Meryl River. Through his tender Streep, Colin Firth, Angela Lans- ) LIAM DANIEL/FOCUS FEATURES; ( FEATURES; DANIEL/FOCUS LIAM ) and unflinching memoir, bury, Julie Walters and a still- Don Gillmor chases the spry Van Dyke are all on ghost of his sibling north hand as Mary Poppins of the 60th parallel, trying returns to the now-grown to better understand a Banks siblings, who find man he’d hardly known themselves in need of MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS OF QUEEN MARY,

( in adulthood. Dec. 31. care and whimsy. Dec. 19.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 19 Points to Ponder BY CHRISTINA PALASSIO (AUGUST 15,

I don’t really believe that anything If you spend all your time thinking is ordinary—I think everything is about whether something could THE GLOBE AND MAIL complex and worthy of conjecture make a lot of money, you’re going to and worthy of a close look. I really be in trouble because very few things believe that you could imagine the do. Unless you’re Dwayne Johnson. secrets of the universe by looking at a pile of grapes. Actress NEVE CAMPBELL, to Fashion, on how she chooses roles

The late still-life painter MARY PRATT Forced celibacy simply doesn’t work. The fact has been amply proved and The fact that I skated was a reason reproved. Most priests don’t manage I got bullied, but at the same time, it to remain chaste. They try and fail. was something I loved to do so much. The truth must be confronted and the It was an escape. For me it was a safe iniquitous dogma buried once and space. Out on the ice, nothing could for all. Given that lives are destroyed reach me. wherever it holds sway, it is criminal to prevaricate and procrastinate. Figure skater ERIC RADFORD, the first openly gay athlete to take home Writer NANCY HUSTON, in an open an Olympic gold medal, to CBC Sports letter to Pope Francis in The Globe and Mail

Let’s remember when we see the term “asylum seeker,” that is a fellow human being in terrible distress relying on an ancient right that we deny at great peril to our own humanity. Former foreign minister LLOYD AXWORTHY and former attorney general ALLAN ROCK, 2018); (CAMPBELL) MAY 7, 2018; (RADFORD) JUNE 22, (HUSTON) AUGUST 21, (AXWORTHY, ROCK) 27, 2018. in The Globe and Mail PHOTO: (AXWORTHY) DAVID LIPNOWSKI PHOTOGRAPHY/THE UNIVERSITY OF WINNIPEG. QUOTES: (PRATT)

20 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca I think we tend to only care about the oppression of people when stories of trauma or brutality or violence are exposed, as opposed to when people who are oppressed just want to have a conversation about their oppression.

Author and activist VIVEK SHRAYA, in Fashion (JULY 25, 2018); (OSLER) AUGUST 19, 2018; (SUGAR (JULY 25, 2018); (OSLER) AUGUST 19, 2018; (SUGAR

(AUGUST 25, 2018); (DONOVAN) BBC NEWS (FEB. 23, 2017). It was perfect…Because if you go into [Conservative Party leader] Andrew DAILY MAIL a comedy club wearing a baby, who’s [Scheer] made a clear promise, that going to tell you to take it off? people relied upon, that a government of Conservative members Comedian KATHERINE RYAN on what would not introduce abortion legisla- it felt like to take her three-week-old daughter with her tion. Very important to me. And onstage at her first paid comedy gig THE GLOBE AND MAIL we’re not going to go back on it.

Mine is the face of medicine now. Conservative MP LISA RAITT, When you go to a hospital today, after a proposal that could have reopened the abortion the face you are very likely to see is debate failed at the party’s August policy convention female and of a different ethnicity. Most companies think they need New Canadian Medical to be perfectly ready to provide an (AUGUST 11, 2018); (RAITT) Association president DR. GIGI OSLER, on “accessible” space for disabled work- the rise of non-white female doctors, in The Globe and Mail ers. The reality is disabled people know what they need to be success- Humour allows you to address ful. Companies only need to listen taboos. In Quebec the ultimate taboo and adjust to those needs. is identity. THE NEW YORK TIMES Disability advocate Comedian SUGAR SAMMY RICH DONOVAN, author of Unleash Different: PHOTO: (SHRAYA) ADAM COISH. QUOTES: AUGUST 2, 2018; (RYAN) SAMMY) on language laws in Quebec Achieving business success through disability

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 21 HEALTH

How to best protect your epidermis against the ravages of cold weather Treating Dry Winter Skin BY SAMANTHA RIDEOUT

! AH, WINTER. ’Tis the season care, since cumulative sun damage for dry skin, along with potential and slower production of natural oils complications, including itching, put them at greater risk of dryness. aking, cracking, bleeding, rosacea Happily, there’s plenty you can do (redness and inammation) and to reduce winter’s toll on your skin. eczema are-ups. To start, adapt your bathing routine. There are several reasons for Piping hot water may feel good, but this. First, the air outdoors is drier, that’s a sure way to strip away your because low temperatures cause skin’s natural oils. Use warm water water molecules to condense into instead, keep your baths or showers ice or snow rather than remain in the short, and apply a generous amount atmosphere. Indoor air tends to be of moisturizer after you dry off. parched as well, an effect of heating Thick, oily products are especially

systems. Seniors need to take extra effective at fighting winter moisture IMAGES ISTOCK.COM/PEOPLE

22 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca o on sks m wt I w nt to bnymor The future is unwritten. Ask your doctor about Prolia®. ProliaFuture.com

© 2018 Amgen Canada Inc. All rights reserved. Prolia® is a registered trademark of Amgen Inc., used with permission. READER’S DIGEST loss, “but don’t despair if you can’t also reduces damage, since exposure tolerate those due to pore clogging to the frigid air further harms skin. or shininess,” says Dr. Bav Shergill, If you’re prone to winter itch a consultant dermatologist and (which is exactly what it sounds like), spokesperson for the British Skin avoid direct contact with potentially Foundation. “Even a light irritating fabrics such as wool or syn- moisturizer will give thetic fibres. “The best you some protection.” approach is to wear When it comes to several thin layers,” your hands, frequent Ideally, wintertime says Shergill. “The one washing with soap is baths and showers next to the skin could essential for prevent- shouldn’t exceed be cotton or a cotton/ ing the flu and other silk blend, both of infections, but it leads 10 minutes. which appear to be to dryness. So after well tolerated by most you clean them, apply people.” Layering lets hand cream. If that doesn’t help you adapt to various temperatures enough, try a dab of petroleum jelly during the day, keeping you toasty before bed; you can put on cotton while avoiding excessive sweating gloves to keep it in place overnight. that could trigger itching and scratch- Wearing mittens or gloves outdoors ing in already-irritated skin.

TEST YOUR MEDICAL IQ

Radiofrequency energy (RFE) is a form of radiation notably given off by… A. MRI machines. C. CT scanners.

B. mobile phones. D. the sun.

Answer: B. RFE (also known as radio waves) is a type of electromagnetic radiation emitted by cellphones. Like microwaves, and unlike ultraviolet or X-rays, it operates at a frequency too low to damage cells by ionizing atoms. Some people nevertheless worry that RFE could cause cancer or other conditions. So far, no reliable evidence exists for a link between cellphone use and health problems, but more research is needed.

24 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca n?

W. GIFFORD-JONES, MD – Everyone is talking about collagen these days, and with good reason. As we age, WKHERG\·VSURGXFWLRQRIFROODJHQVORZVGRZQZKLFK FDQUHVXOWLQDJLQJVNLQRVWHRDUWKULWLVRVWHRSRURVLV and many other conditions, including declining cardiovascular health. This is where vitamin C comes in. Vitamin C is the single most important water-soluble antioxidant in the human body. Aside from supporting immune health, vitamin C is needed to manufacture collagen, the major FRPSRQHQWRIWKHERG\·VFRQQHFWLYHWLVVXHVLQFOXGLQJFDUWLODJH tendons, ligaments, bones, and most importantly, blood vessels. Coronary arteries are under more pressure than any other artery in the body. The heart beats 100,000 times every 24 hours and 2.2 billion times if you live to 70 years of age. Without healthy arteries, this constant pounding causes minute cracks in collagen, resulting in atherosclerosis, blood clots, or rupturing of a weakened artery, resulting in a stroke. As we age, the key to healthy collagen for cardiovascular health, joint health, teeth, gums, wound healing, and more is vitamin C combined with O\VLQH,IWKDWGRHVQ·WFRQYLQFH\RXDOOWKHEHDXW\H[SHUWVZLOODOVRWHOO\RX that collagen helps keep skin looking youthful. ,·YHEHHQWDNLQJKLJKGRVHVRIYLWDPLQ&DQGO\VLQHIRU\HDUVIROORZLQJ my heart attack. I still enjoy travelling, writing my columns, and I also rappelled down Toronto City Hall to help raise funds for Make-A-Wish® Canada. I turned 94 this year - not bad!

“For heart health and more, I recommend Medi-C Plus.” - W. GIFFORD-JONES, MD

Exclusively Available in medi-c.ca Natural Health Food Stores NEWS FROM THE World of Medicine

BY SAMANTHA RIDEOUT

Celiac Patients Unwittingly blocking a particular receptor that Consuming Gluten transmits migraine pain. Taken as a Managing celiac disease usually monthly home injection, it has been requires ingesting 10 milligrams shown to reduce the frequency of or less of gluten per day, but this is migraines by more than 50 per cent easier said than done, according to for over half of patients, and even a study from the American Journal eliminate them for some. The short- of Clinical Nutrition. The stool and term side effects seem to be infre- urine of people trying to follow a quent and mild (e.g., injection pain, gluten- free diet revealed that they possible nasal infections), although, were being exposed to an estimated as with any new drug, little is known average of 150 to 400 milligrams per about the longer-term effects. day. Lesser-known sources include certain medications, lipsticks, sauces Oranges Ward Off and vitamins. Celiac patients who Macular Degeneration are experiencing symptoms should Regular enjoyment of oranges may re-examine their habits with the help prevent macular degeneration, advice of a dietician or doctor. a major cause of age-related vision loss. An observational study of more New Migraine Prevention than 2,000 seniors, conducted from Treatment Available the Westmead Institute for Medical The first medication developed Research in Australia, calculated a specifically to prevent migraines— 60 per cent reduced risk in subjects rather than repurposed from treat- who tended to eat at least one orange ments for other kinds of daily. In addition to the vitamin conditions—has been C present, flavonoids might approved in Europe. also explain the effect, Erenumab (brand name since these compounds Aimovig) is the first in prevent oxidative stress a class of drugs that will and reduce inflamma-

tackle the problem by tion in the body. VOORHES THE BY PHOTOGRAPH

26 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca A SPECIAL INTEREST SECTION BY MEDIAPLANET PERSONALHEALTHNEWS.CA The on the Chronic Lung Disease 411 Killing Canadian Women Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a destructive and irreversible lung condition in which the airways become blocked, making it diicult to breathe. When left untreated, COPD has a serious impact on quality of life and can often be fatal. Although long seen as primarily afecting men, recent years have seen a growing COPD epidemic among Canadian women, to the point where its mortality rate now exceeds that of breast cancer. Here are ﬁve simple tips to help manage the disease.

Ask your Practice healthy it easier to inhale and deliver the doctor lifestyle habits medication to where it is needed for a lung “By making your in the lungs if you use an MDI function test body healthier, (pufer). “We make a you can do diagnosis based more with the Try drug-free on symptoms lung function you have — even if devices as and risk factors and then a your lungs don’t work well,” says an additional lung function test,” says family Dr. Kaplan. “That’s the principle therapy physician Dr. Alan Kaplan, of pulmonary rehabilitation, “There are non- Chairperson of the Family which can do as much for your pharmacological Physician Airways Group of quality of life as medications.” interventions for COPD, and Canada. “As a patient you should one that really stands out is the never accept a COPD diagnosis Ensure Aerobika® OPEP device,” says without a lung function test.” you’re taking Thibeault. “It’s an unmedicated medications device that shakes the airways Avoid properly up, allowing patients to get rid of cigarette “It’s important the mucous that is accumulating smoke to be adherent, in their lungs. We have recent “Smoking meaning studies showing that proper cessation is a you take your medications use of the device can improve must,” says Lisa properly and in the way they breathing and quality of life, Thibeault, Certiﬁed Respiratory are prescribed,” says Dr. Kaplan. reduce COPD ﬂare-ups, and even Educator and Respiratory “Also, make sure you’ve shown recoup new areas of the lungs Therapist. “If you get a diagnosis your inhaler technique to your that had previously been plugged of COPD and you continue to health care professional.” An by mucus.” smoke, the progression of the AeroChamber Plus® mask or disease will be much faster.” mouthpiece chamber can make D.F. McCourt

Strategic Accounts Director: Jesse Adamson Country Manager: Jacob Weingarten Content References: Production Manager: Ellen Asiedu Lead Designer: Michael Shea Digital Content Manager: Camille 1. Burudpakdee C, et al. Pulm Ther 2017;3(1):163-171. Co Contributor: D.F. McCourt Send all inquiries to [email protected]. This section 2. Svenningsen S, et al. J COPD 2016;13(1):66-74. was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve Reader’s Digest or its editorial departments. 3. Suggett J. Chronic Obstr Pulm Dis 2017;4(3). Ask your Pharmacist how the Aerobika® device can help with COPD. Learn more at: GetYourBreathBack.com

What’s Wrong With Me? BY LISA BENDALL ILLUSTRATION BY VICTOR WONG

THE PATIENT: Samantha*, tract infection—or, worst case, a a 24-year-old waitress kidney stone. THE SYMPTOMS: Lower back pain When nothing resolved after two and exhaustion weeks, Samantha visited her family THE DOCTOR: Dr. Andrew Rule, doctor, who checked her urine. She nephrologist at the Mayo Clinic was negative for a UTI, so the doctor Hospital, Rochester, Minn. took some blood and sent Samantha for a CT scan of her kidneys. ! SAMANTHA, A WAITRESS The next day, the doctor called who spent most of her days on her to tell her there was no kidney stone, feet, hardly ever got sick. But in Octo- but that Samantha’s level of creatin- ber 2017, she started feeling rotten. ine, a waste product, was rising. She was tired all the time and began Also, her urine contained blood and to wonder if she had the flu. At the protein. Unable to explain it, Saman- restaurant, she just wanted to crawl tha’s doctor referred her to the Mayo under a table. Her regulars could tell Clinic’s emergency department. something was wrong. Nephrologist Andrew Rule ascer- During this period, Samantha also tained from additional blood tests felt an intermittent, stabbing pain on that Samantha’s kidneys were losing the right side of her lower back. She function rapidly; he guessed that noticed her urine looked cloudy, something could be causing inflam- which made her suspect a urinary mation of her glomeruli, networks of tiny blood vessels in the kidneys that *Biographical details have been changed. help filter waste. Rule ordered new

28 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca tests to look for possible causes, such returned to her veins along with as lupus, and gave Samantha a high- donor plasma. dose steroid to control inflammation. After seven days of this regimen, “Time is critical for kidneys,” he says. Samantha’s creatinine levels hadn’t “If they stop working, they may not normalized, so she began dialysis— come back.” three sessions a week—to do the Rule discovered that Samantha’s work of her impaired kidneys. blood contained antibodies, created Eighteen days later, the antibodies by her own immune system, that had lowered enough for her to go were attacking the glomeruli. When home. She would continue dialysis this happens, these clusters of fragile but eventually, doctors told her, she blood vessels in the organ break would need a kidney transplant. down and bleed. If the Then, a couple days problem isn’t treated before Christmas, she soon enough, patients got wonderful news not only lose their kid- “If kidneys stop that came as a com- ney function—they can working, they plete surprise: not only lose their lives. may not come was the treatment per- The rare condition, forming well, and the known as anti-GBM back,” says antibodies’ assault on disease (named after nephrologist her kidneys easing up, the antibodies), occurs but some function had most often in people Andrew Rule. resumed. “None of us who are in their 20s or expected that,” says over 60. Doctors Rule, explaining that remain in the dark about the reason while many of Samantha’s glomeruli for this age split, and about some were damaged beyond repair, others other aspects of the disease. “It’s not had must have started working extra known what triggers these antibodies hard. She no longer needed dialysis, to be produced in the first place,” let alone the transplant. says Rule. Today, Samantha is back at work. Treatment, which must begin right Although her kidneys will never be away, includes steroids, chemotherapy completely normal, she does her best and sometimes rituximab, an anti- to keep them healthy by watching body therapy. On top of this, Saman- her intake of salt and potassium. tha’s blood would be removed each “I had about 40 people offering me day to filter out the plasma with the their kidneys,” she says. “But I didn’t damaging antibodies, and then want theirs—I just wanted mine.”

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 29 Presented by the Public Health Agency of Canada

IT’S FLU SEASON AGAIN – LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF Fever, cough, severe body aches and exhaustion. These are the common symptoms of the flu. 0RVWSHRSOHZKRJHWWKHÀXUHFRYHUZLWKLQWRGD\V)RURWKHUVUHFRYHU\PD\WDNHORQJHURUFRPSOLFDWLRQV PD\RFFXU7KHÀXLVRQHRIWKHWRSFDXVHVRIGHDWKLQ&DQDGD,WOHDGVWRDQHVWLPDWHGKRVSLWDOVWD\V DQGGHDWKVHYHU\\HDU6RLW¶VLPSRUWDQWWKDWZHDOOOHDUQKRZWRSUHYHQWWKHÀX

PREVENTING THE FLU IS BEST ,QDGGLWLRQWRJHWWLQJWKHÀXVKRW\RXFDQSURWHFW\RXUVHOI The flu shot is the best way to prevent the flu and and those around you by practicing these healthy habits: FDQHYHQUHGXFHWKHULVNRIÀXUHODWHGV\PSWRPVDQG wash your hands often FRPSOLFDWLRQV,WFDQDOVRKHOS\RXSURWHFWRWKHUV FRXJKDQGVQHH]HLQWRWKHEHQGRI\RXUDUP LQFOXGLQJWKRVHZKRFDQ¶WJHWWKHÀXVKRW OLNHLQIDQWV not into your hand DQGSHRSOHZLWKXQGHUO\LQJFRQGLWLRQV EHFDXVHZKHQ you’re vaccinated you are less likely to spread the virus DYRLGWRXFKLQJ\RXUQRVHPRXWKRUH\HVZLWK WRWKRVHDURXQG\RX³,I\RX¶UHYDFFLQDWHGDQGVWLOOJHWWKH your hands ÀX\RXUV\PSWRPVPD\EHOHVVVHYHUHDQG\RX¶UHOLNHO\ clean and disinfect objects and surfaces that WREHOHVVVLFN´VD\V'U7KHUHVD7DP&DQDGD¶V&KLHI a lot of people touch 3XEOLF+HDOWK2I¿FHU³6LPLODUO\ZLWKWKHVKRW\RX¶UHOHVV LI\RXGRJHWVLFNVWD\KRPHDQGDYRLGFRQWDFW OLNHO\WRVXIIHUIURPVHULRXVFRPSOLFDWLRQVIURPWKHÀX´ ZLWKRWKHUVXQWLO\RXUV\PSWRPVDUHJRQH YOU NEED A NEW SHOT EVERY YEAR TO STAY THE FLU IS SERIOUS FOR ADULTS 65 AND OVER PROTECTED $GXOWVDUHDWKLJKHUULVNRIVHULRXVIOXUHODWHG )OXYLUXVHVDUHFRQVWDQWO\FKDQJLQJ7KURXJKRXW FRPSOLFDWLRQV$V\RXDJH\RXULPPXQHV\VWHPFKDQJHV the\HDUWKH:RUOG+HDOWK2UJDQL]DWLRQDQGJOREDO PDNLQJLWKDUGHUWR¿JKWRIILQIHFWLRQV,QDGGLWLRQRWKHU SDUWQHUVWUDFNWKHW\SHVRIÀXYLUXVHVWKDWFKDQJH KHDOWKFRQGLWLRQVFDQZRUVHQZLWKWKHÀXLQFUHDVLQJWKH DVWKH\FLUFXODWHDURXQGWKHZRUOG%DVHGRQWKLV ULVNRIÀXUHODWHGFRPSOLFDWLRQV6RPHFRPSOLFDWLRQVIURP LQIRUPDWLRQDQHZDQQXDOYDFFLQHLVSURGXFHG WKHÀXOLNHSQHXPRQLDFDQKDYHVHULRXVFRQVHTXHQFHV HEALTHY HABITS COMPLEMENT AN ANNUAL VXFKDVEUHDWKLQJSUREOHPVVHYHUHGHK\GUDWLRQDQGHYHQ FLU SHOT GHDWK5HFHQWVWXGLHVLQGLFDWHWKDWKDYLQJWKHÀXRQWRS of a chronic cardiovascular condition can increase the risk 7KHÀXVSUHDGVZKHQDSHUVRQLQIHFWHGZLWKWKH virus VQHH]HVFRXJKVRUWDONVDQGUHOHDVHVWLQ\ RIDKHDUWDWWDFN*HWWLQJWKHÀXVKRWFDQEHOLIHVDYLQJ GURSOHWVWKDWFRQWDLQWKHYLUXV7KHVHGURSOHWVFDQEH GET YOUR FLU SHOT EARLY EUHDWKHGLQE\VRPHRQHHOVHRUODQGRQDVXUIDFHWKDW ,WFDQWDNHXSWRWZRZHHNVIRUWKHÀXVKRWWRSURWHFW DQRWKHUSHUVRQWRXFKHVOLNHWKHKDQGOHRIDVKRSSLQJ \RX*HWWLQJWKHIOXVKRWDVHDUO\DVSRVVLEOHLQWKH FDUWDGRRUNQRERUDSKRQH³7KHÀXLVH[WUHPHO\ VHDVRQLV\RXUEHVWGHIHQFH:LWKWKHIOXVKRW\RX FRQWDJLRXV´VD\V'U7DP³

BY AGE 65 YOU’RE AT A MUCH HIGHER RISK FOR SERIOUS COMPLICATIONS FROM THE FLU GET THE FLU SHOT CANADA.CA/FLU COVER STORY

Nine remarkable achievements from the past year Extraordinary Acts of Canadian KINDNESS BY REBECCA TUCKER

To Save a River the pretty waterway was deemed by UPPER LAHAVE, N.S. many locals as unfit for swimming, but Stella wanted to know why. The then In this era of environmental crises, it’s 11-year-old was distressed to learn perhaps not surprising that Stella what was causing the pollution: raw Bowles found one in her own back- sewage being dumped directly into the yard. What is unique is her determina- water by hundreds of her neighbours. tion to do something about it. “I was disgusted,” Stella says, when The 100-kilometre LaHave River she found out 600 homes were using

runs from Annapolis County to the straight-pipes to pump waste from toi- FRASER KENZIE Atlantic and passes through Stella’s let to river without any filtration. She C community of Upper LaHave, on Nova decided to look into the problem for

Scotia’s South Shore. Back in 2015, her Grade 6 science project. With the M AARON

32 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Stella Bowles at the LaHave River, September 30, 2018. READER’S DIGEST mentorship of a retired local physi- Caring in a Crisis cian, Stella learned how to test the FREDERICTON water in the LaHave. Her results showed fecal contamination above Abrahim Kamara can’t talk about what Health Canada guidelines, and the he saw the morning of February 10. He project would go on to earn a silver can only say that he was in the parking medal at a cross-Canada science fair lot of his apartment building in Fred- in 2017. But locals were boating on the ericton to load his car when a shooter river without knowing they were being opened fire, killing police officers exposed to potentially dangerous Robb Costello and Sara Burns, and bacteria, viruses and parasites. civilians Bobbie Lee Wright and her With the help of her mother, Andrea boyfriend, Donnie Robichaud. Conrad, Stella began to raise aware- Single dad Kamara and his 13-year- ness about the LaHave’s contamina- old son, Ayouba, sought refuge back in tion problem. Soon she was making their apartment. When police arrived to local headlines and lobbying poli- tell them everything was okay, Ayouba ticians. In spring 2017, the municipal, was cowering on the floor. The duo was provincial and federal governments evacuated to safety, but the teen was too agreed to eliminate all straight-pipes afraid to return to his new home. The in Nova Scotia by 2023. pair arrived in Canada in August 2017 The LaHave still isn’t safe for swim- after escaping war-torn Liberia and ming, but it should be safe for the sixth spending 12 years in a refugee camp. graders of Upper LaHave’s future. That day, when Kamara didn’t report Stella, now 14, continues to press for for work at the York Care Centre, a more stringent rules to protect the retirement residence, his colleagues river and this year travelled around her learned that he’d witnessed the shoot- province to teach other kids how to test ing. “We needed to do the right thing their local waterways and advocate for to get him through this,” says Tim better stewardship. Boone, a manager at the home. In August, Stella’s ongoing work The team offered Kamara and earned her an International Eco- Ayouba the use of one of the Hero Award, which recognizes centre’s 103 apartment units, as the efforts of environmental well as providing some food, youth activists. “I never thought clothing and personal-care I’d be where I am today because items. Boone also helped negoti- of a science fair project,” says ate an insurance claim for Stella, who is contemplating a Kamara’s Ford Taurus,

career in environmental law. which had been LICENSING HARROP/CBC CATHERINE Abrahim Kamara

34 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca A team effort at the Williams’ farm, August 19, 2018.

damaged by an armoured vehicle at illness. The farmer had left behind a the crime scene. wife, three sons and about 640 acres of “They came to my rescue,” Kamara unharvested durum wheat. says. “It was not easy. I feel so much “Mid-August is go time for crops,” closer to my co-workers now. And my says Brown, himself a farmer. “And if son and I can once again feel happy a family is in need, the community and free.” pulls together.” He sent out a text to 10 or so locals, asking them to pitch The Town That in to help the grieving family. Word Farms Together spread from there. MILESTONE, SASK. The next day, 20 farmers and their combines arrived at the Williams’ farm With a population of just under 700, and completed the harvest. It took Milestone is the kind of place where about three hours for them to do what the mayor knows your name—and would have taken the Williams sons your phone number. several days. “Years ago, when the farm- On August 18, Mayor Jeff Brown ing machines weren’t so big, families learned that Brian Williams, one of his would get together more to help out

JEFF BROWN JEFF constituents, had died after a brief like this,” says Brown. “It’s in our DNA.”

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 35 READER’S DIGEST

A Roadside Angel CALGARY

On August 5 just after 7:30 p.m., Mike Estepa suffered a massive heart attack. The fervent cyclist was 40 kilometres into his Sunday ride when he stopped by the side of the road to text his family saying he’d be home in about 30 minutes. Moments later, he was lying in the ditch, unconscious. Larissa Arthur was driving back to Calgary from a hike in Field, B.C., with a friend. It was a warm and sunny day, and the two were chat- ting when a flash of yellow caught Arthur’s eye. She immediately pulled off the road. As Arthur approached the figure, she feared the worst: Estepa was covered in ants and exhibited no signs of life. “There was no pulse, and he wasn’t breathing,” says Arthur. A bystander called 911 and Arthur, a registered nurse, started chest compressions. She and two other drivers took turns administering CPR for the next 15 minutes before paramedics arrived and whisked Estepa away. Two days later, when Estepa woke up in the hospital, he was stunned to learn he had gone into cardiac arrest. How did this happen, and why was he lucky enough to have survived? He needed to speak with the woman who had saved him, whom he dubbed his “angel.” “It was emotional,” says Arthur of her meeting with Estepa a few weeks later. Saving his life has extra signifi- cance for her: the trek she was returning from that day was one of 100 she’s planned to commemorate her father, who died in 2017 after he fell during a hike that Arthur was meant to be on. “I couldn’t save my father’s life,” Arthur says, “but this was a chance for me to save someone.”

36 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca The wayward Arctic fox before and after his rescue.

Fox on the Rocks before releasing him. Since then, his ST. LEWIS, N.L. silver silhouette has been spotted once or twice around nearby William’s Har- One morning in June, three crab fish- bour, looking fit as, well, a fox. ers from St. Lewis happened upon an unusual sight at sea: an Arctic fox. The A Campaign for unfortunate creature was stuck atop a Compassion mushroom-shaped iceberg, around RIVERVIEW, N.B. seven kilometres from shore. Mallory Harrigan, Alan Russell and Two years ago, when she was 17 years his dad, Cliff Russell, set about rescuing old, Rebecca Schofield was told her the distressed animal, but they couldn’t brain tumours were inoperable and get the boat close enough to reach him. she had only months to live. Forgoing Their only choice was to use the vessel math class was one item on the bucket to smash the iceberg and then scoop list she drew up, as were playing board the fox out of the water with a long- games with family, enjoying her favou- handled net. The operation was a suc- rite meals (her dad’s mac and cheese cess: the shivering animal was dried among them) and a wish to encour- off and fed a meal of Vienna sausages. age people to do kind things. Back on land, the crew kept the Becca shared her idea on Facebook: creature in a dog kennel for a couple she wasn’t asking for big gestures, just

(OPPOSITE PAGE) COLIN WAY; (THIS PAGE) COURTESY OF MALLORY HARRIGAN MALLORY OF COURTESY PAGE) (THIS WAY; COLIN PAGE) (OPPOSITE days, ensuring he was in good health, small, random acts of kindness that

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 37 READER’S DIGEST

gears when he heard a loud crash. The Becca Schofield 48-year-old pulled his rig over to find sitting with her dog, Benny, that an SUV had smashed into the June 20, 2017. back of a truck stopped in traffic going the opposite direction. When he approached the SUV, he saw the driver’s neck had been pierced with a broken fragment of steering wheel. With his right hand, Vieira quickly pulled out his phone and dialled 911; with his left, he applied pressure directly to the driver’s neck to stem the bleeding. Moments later, the driver of the rear-ended truck walked over to see what had happened— and immediately fainted. With his hand still on the first man’s neck, Vieira used his foot to pull the second man’s might brighten someone else’s day. leg safely away from oncoming traffic. Thousands of people took up the call, In March, Vieira received the Good- posting stories with the hashtag year Highway Hero Award for his life- #Beccatoldmeto about opening doors, saving juggling act, but he remains buying coffee for strangers, giving out pragmatic about his role: “I was just in granola bars at the gym. the right place at the right time.” Becca Schofield died on February 17 at the age of 18, but #Beccatoldmeto Expanding Support continues to flourish. “Every day I’m for Women reminded of her legacy,” her mother, MONTREAL Anne Schofield, says. When Andrew Harper, 95, was look- Hero on the Highway ing to bestow a charitable donation, TORONTO he wanted to make his late wife, Car- ole, proud and to address Montreal’s In his 32 years as a truck driver, Frank escalating poverty rates. In May, he Vieira estimates he’s covered nearly chose Chez Doris, a local day shelter 10 million kilometres without incident. that provides vital services—meals, On the morning of August 24, 2017, his clothing, showers and various educa-

drive from Toronto to Hamilton shifted tional, legal and health programs— COURTESY OF ANNE SCHOFIELD

38 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca for women in vulnerable situations. saying he was injured, so for me it Harper’s unexpected gift of $1 million was just pure adrenalin,” he says. He is not only the largest in the non-prof- jumped down onto the tracks to help. it’s 41-year history; it’s a game changer. Once he reached the fallen man, “A donation of this scale is common who appeared to have broken his leg, for a university or a hospital, but not Busquine quickly realized he wouldn’t for a poverty-relief organization,” says be able to lift him by himself without Chez Doris executive director Marina injuring him further. Luckily, two Boulos-Winton. other bystanders—Julio Cabrera, who She notes that there are only 70 to works for the city as a ferry deckhand, 110 emergency beds in Montreal avail- and engineering graduate Jehangir able to women, who make up a quarter of the city’s homeless population. With the help of Harp- er’s donation, Chez Doris has purchased a new building, allowing them to expand their efforts and offer 20 emergency beds. Boulos- Winton estimates Harper’s donation will provide refuge to 300 women every year. From left: Kyle Busquine, Rescued From Jehangir Faisal and Julio the Tracks Cabrera, on July 10, 2018. TORONTO Faisal—realized the same thing and Kyle Busquine isn’t usually on the joined Busquine in hoisting the man subway at 3 p.m., but on June 28 he’d to safety on the platform, where TTC finished his landscaping job a little officials took over his care. early and was headed east, toward his Later that day, Julie Caniglia, who home in Scarborough, when the train witnessed the rapid-response rescue, stopped abruptly at Broadview station. described the events on Facebook. The Busquine, 24, poked his head out post has been shared almost 60,000 the door to check what was causing times and received over 7,000 com- the delay. That’s when he spotted a ments, including this one: “Canadians visually impaired man who had fallen do help one another. These are the onto the westbound tracks and was heroes we should be hearing about.

BERNARD WEIL/TORONTO STAR/GETTY IMAGES STAR/GETTY WEIL/TORONTO BERNARD crying for help. “I could hear him God bless you.”

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 39 LIFE LESSON

What you need to know about social anxiety and surviving the holiday season Ready to

BY LEAH RUMACK PartyILLUSTRATION BY KATY DOCKRILL ?

PAINFUL SHYNESS has affected Karen “Dinner parties are the worst,” she Chapelle, a 48-year-old welder from adds, recalling one 30-person Pass- Toronto, for her entire life. While she over Seder that she once bailed on at has many friends that she sees one- the last minute because she knew the on-one, trying to socialize with more hosts were planning to ask everyone than a few people—especially if she around the table to speak about doesn’t know them—sends her into a what they were thankful for. “I really cold sweat. wanted to go but I just couldn’t. Too

40 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca

READER’S DIGEST much sharing, too many people. It suggests watching how closely others was overwhelming.” are standing to people you’re talking Like Chapelle, many socially anx- to and model yourself after them. Also, ious people brace themselves in prep- he adds, speak a little more loudly aration for another forced march than you’re used to—if people can’t through a line of punch bowls during hear you, it’s very easy for them to the holidays. And while most people unwittingly ignore you, making you feel bashful some of the time, or under feel even more uncomfortable. some circumstances, an estimated 12 per cent struggle with a more ser- Examine Your Thoughts ious social-anxiety disorder, which When Chapelle does decide to attend significantly impacts their lives. an event, she spends a great deal of Here are some strategies to help time beforehand—sometimes even everyone from garden-variety blushers weeks—imagining every possible scen- to serial party-avoiders get through the ario that could go wrong (and hence season—and maybe have some fun providing “evidence” for why she while they’re at it. probably shouldn’t go at all). “Some- times I realize that I’m panicking over Be Conscious of Your nothing,” she says, and finds that peo- Body Language ple are always pleasantly surprised “Much of the time, when people are when she arrives. anxious or are afraid of being rejected, Judith Laposa, a psychologist at the they have a very closed body posture. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health They fold their arms over their chest, in Toronto, says one of the main ways speak quietly, or stand far away from that even capital-S social-anxiety dis- other people,” says Martin Antony, a order is treated is by evaluating your psychology professor at Ryerson Uni- thought patterns more critically. This is versity and co-author of The Shyness a cornerstone of cognitive behavioural and Social Anxiety Workbook. “Other therapy, which can also be helpful for people read those cues and think, This milder cases. person doesn’t want to be social right “A practical thing you can do is ask now, so I’m going to stay away.” yourself: ‘What am I afraid is going to Antony says actively counteracting happen?’” she says. “Maybe you’re these “get away from me” signals can scared that people are going to laugh go a long way toward breaking the at you and walk out. But how likely is cycle of awkwardness and self-exile. that, really?” Laposa says most people, Don’t know what’s actually appropri- when anxious, overestimate the odds

ate in terms of personal space? Antony of something disastrous occurring. ISTOCK.COM/KAMESHKOVA PAGE) PREVIOUS ON LIGHTS (STRING

42 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Practice Makes Perfect Come Prepared, but Not When it comes to attending events, Too Prepared you’re allowed to prioritize and pace Stressed out about making small talk? yourself—you probably don’t need to Laposa says she’s okay with patients go to every cookie exchange and client showing up to soirees armed with a cocktail—but avoiding all festivities isn’t few talking points, but she suggests going to help you get over your social staying away from rehearsing or trying phobia. It could actually make it worse. to stick to a script. Since the other “For someone who’s socially anx- person won’t know their lines, this ious, the best thing to do is expose scheme can easily go off the rails. themselves to situations where they A better strategy, Laposa says, is to have to face their fear again and again,” bring up things that interest you, even says Antony. In the short term, he if you’re unsure anyone else shares admits it will likely make them more in them. “Self-disclosure is important,” anxious, but it’s like exercise—over she says. “If you’re talking about sometime, social muscles grow. “If you don’t thing that’s meaningful to you, the other exercise much and then work out, you person is more likely to reciprocate.” might feel more tired afterwards, but If they do, listening and asking follow- the answer isn’t to avoid exercise— up questions is an easy way to keep because then you’re going to feel tired the conversation going. for the rest of your life!” One thing both Antony and Laposa While this strategy isn’t a huge help suggest avoiding, however, is getting if you’re facing the holiday start line drunk to keep yourself loose; alcohol is without any time to warm up, Laposa an unpredictable crutch that ultimately says you can still implement your own doesn’t help you get over your fears. social self-improvement plan by taking small steps. “Instead of not going NO MATTER HOW you navigate the to the party, or leaving after 30 min- holiday season, Antony encourages you utes, tell yourself, ‘I’m going to stay to give yourself some slack. “It’s not for an hour and a half,’” Laposa says. good or bad if you’re anxious or if your “Then build yourself up with positive heart is racing,” he says. “Remember coping strategies.” that it’s normal, not harmful and the If getting yourself moving helps worst thing that will happen is you’ll calm your nerves, she suggests going feel uncomfortable.” for a walk before a party. Or she’s “One thing that I’ve found really found that other people respond well helps me is just reminding myself to if they promise themselves some type breathe,” says Chapelle. “It sounds silly, of reward if they go through with it. but it works.”

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 43

FOOD

What working in Toronto’s Out in the Cold taught me about the challenges of serving healthy food to those who need it most

BY COREY MINTZ FROM THE LOCAL PHOTOGRAPH BY JAIME HOGGE

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 45 READER’S DIGEST

hat I like about at her sister’s restaurant, Nice n Easy. cooking in a shel- If she’s in a good mood, she greets me ter is the demand as “honey” or “sweetheart.” She asks for improvisation. how my wife is and hugs me enthusi- I’ve cooked in res- astically. If she just waves or calls me Wtaurants, a spa, a dinner theatre, and “boss,” I know she worked past 2 a.m. in my home for my wife, my friends last night, maybe as late as 4 a.m. and my family. I have cooked, as well, For a few hours every Sunday, I stop for newspaper readers, rigorously test- checking my phone. I catch up with ing recipes with a stopwatch to make McBean. I show her pictures of the kit- sure the results can be duplicated. tens we’re fostering, and she shows me At home, you plan meals, go grocery pictures of her grandchild. The base- shopping and then cook. The process ment kitchen is small, with a lot of space is a privilege—an experience to be taken up by a six-burner stove. As we savoured if you’re fortunate enough to cook, we listen to a local call-in show enjoy the luxury of time and money. that tends to showcase Caribbean- When cooking in a restaurant, at the Canadian voices. McBean shares Jamai- end of a shift you make a list of any can cooking tips: how to use browning ingredients you’re short on. You call sauce (caramelized and burnt brown in orders and everything shows up the sugar) or how to make rice and peas (I next morning neatly packed in boxes. didn’t know how essential coconut If something doesn’t look good or isn’t milk is). While we prep, elderly Chi- what you ordered, you send it back. nese men play ping-pong in an adja- Then you spend five hours furiously cent room, cheering after each point. prepping for dinner service. Later in the day, the space is trans- The production demands of a shel- formed into a dining hall. ter kitchen are similar in some ways— When I began volunteering here in high volume, short deadlines. But the January 2017, McBean would give me supply side of things is different, which a breakdown of what she had cooking changes everything. You never know and what she wanted me to make. what you’ll have to work with. These days, she just tells me to make whatever I want from what we have, THE OUT OF THE COLD kitchen at and enough to feed 85 people. Toronto’s University Settlement rec- Until I show up, I don’t know what’s reation centre, where I cook on Sun- going to be in the fridge. But whatever days, is run by Monique McBean. In it is, we need to make at least two addition to preparing food at the dishes containing protein, starch and shelter, the 43-year-old is also the chef vegetables. Our goal is not just to fill

46 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca stomachs, but to treat clients with dig- good food. At University Settlement, nity. And that can mean the dignity of we are serving people at the emergency having a choice, or of seeing that some- level. Clients tend to be over 50 years one cares enough to cook food that old and are dealing with mobility prob- both looks and tastes appetizing. lems, joint pain and arthritis. They also For me, having no control over the face homelessness, addiction and all ingredients is refreshing. For a few the related health issues of food inse- hours on Sundays, it’s therapeutic to curity—like diabetes, heart disease, relinquish my need to control things, obesity, anxiety, back pain, bowel dis- particularly food. The problem is that orders and asthma. for the people who eat here, unpre- I just cook here. I don’t serve din- dictability is not a pleasure. ner. But we often get someone knock- ing at the kitchen door, asking for food. They’re usually polite. And McBean knows they likely haven’t eaten all WE UNDERSTAND day. She makes sure everyone has THAT FOOD INSECURITY something to eat. We’ll fix up a plate MAKES IT MORE of whatever is ready, but it’s usually DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE insufficient to address their larger TO MANAGE CHRONIC dietary needs. HEALTH PROBLEMS. Food insecurity makes it more difficult for people to manage chronic health problems. In turn, health care costs for food insecure households in “It’s a double-edged sword,” says Ontario are more than double those of Nick Saul, CEO of Community Food households that have enough to eat, Centres Canada. “When you’re shoot- according to 2015 statistics from Food ing in the dark like that, it’s liberating Insecurity Policy Research. That’s why for you. But there’s also something it’s so vital that we serve guests a bal- that’s fundamentally wrong that you’re anced meal with fresh ingredients and not able to plan and think about who diversity, and avoid the pitfall of too is walking through the door and curate much rice and pasta, which are inex- a meal that reflects their cultural back- pensive but lacking in nutrients. grounds or their health needs.” Saul operates upstream in the food ON FRIDAYS, Saturdays and Sundays, insecurity ecosystem, where the focus the centre offers a bed, dinner and is on teaching people to cook and gar- breakfast to 85 people (with Friday den, while advocating for access to service pausing between June and

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 47 READER’S DIGEST

September). The annual food budget This is supplemented with food is $50,000, provided by the City of donated by two local organizations: Toronto’s Shelter, Support and Hous- dry goods from Daily Bread Food Bank ing Administration. We’re pretty frugal and fresh produce from Second Har- with ingredients. The small jug of cook- vest Food Rescue. Some weeks we get ing oil does not get splashed around. random meats—cellophane-wrapped Cleaning supplies come out of the packages of beef, pork or lamb in vari- food budget, so we dilute soap with ous stages of colour and smell, stick- water and use a sponge until it disin- ered with labels proclaiming “40% Off.” tegrates in order to make sure that With the rescued meat, I smell every every dollar ends up on the plate. piece before stripping them from the bone to make a stew. Most of it is still good. It just needs to be cooked and eaten right away. SOME WEEKS There’s even less predictability to WE’LL GET MOULDING the produce, which comes from the CARROTS. OTHER same two organizations. But that’s the WEEKS IT’S HEIRLOOM most important part of the meal, as it’s TOMATOES IN NEAR- likely the food group our clients have PRISTINE SHAPE. the least access to. Some weeks we’ll get a case of half-rotted Swiss chard or moulding carrots. Other weeks it’s ripe heirloom tomatoes or small bags Roughly 75 per cent of the staples of Persian cucumbers, in near-pristine we need to have on hand (milk, eggs, shape—a lucky haul from some upscale chicken, fish, apples, bread, etc.) are supermarket, where less than perfect purchased. The protein we work with produce is unsellable. is likely to be a tube of ground beef or There are always technical difficul- a frozen brick of chicken legs. McBean ties, which sometimes threaten the likes to turn the chicken into a Jamai- goal of getting dinner on the table. We can curry. When she’s sick, different are cooking out of a tiny, unventilated chefs lend their own cultural influ- kitchen in an old building. Half of the ences to the food. Bernie, who is stove’s elements don’t work. One week Filipino, makes adobo chicken, sim- the basement flooded. Our sinks are mering the legs in vinegar, soy sauce insufficient for large batch cooking, and sugar. Ritsuko falls back on Japa- and there’s no room or equipment to nese staples like nikujaga, a meat and save food through freezing, pickling or potato stew. curing. When we get meat bones, we

48 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca should be making stock for soup, but Three years ago, on a trip to New we have no freezer space. Orleans, someone gave me a gallon jar That’s the biggest challenge, says of crawfish boil seasoning. It’s incred- manager Toby Druce, who has been ibly salty and spicy—so much so that looking into leasing a chest freezer I’ve only used half of it. I bring it with because the annual budget has no room me to University Settlement and use for a purchase. “The Second Harvest some to finish the dish that has food, we end up throwing a lot of it out,” become a staple of the kitchen. Some he says. “Partly because it’s already weeks we have potatoes, and I boil started to rot. But if we had the ability those down until they thicken the to process the food as it came in and broth. Some weeks it gets bumped up freeze it, that would be really helpful.” with lamb or pork sausages. Our “shelter gumbo” may lack shrimp and okra, ONE WEEK McBEAN asked me to make but I think it’s a delicious and econ- something with frozen haddock. There omical use of frozen fish and whatever were onions, carrots and peppers, too, vegetables I can manage to sneak into and a handful of pork sausages. So I the dish. cooked a roux and built it into what Nobody should have to depend on we called “shelter gumbo.” McBean is a shelter for food. But in our current my Yelp, convening reviews of last system, it makes me happy to know week’s meal. The gumbo was a hit and that at least people look forward to the has gone into regular rotation. cooking from our kitchen.

BUMP IN THE NIGHT

I hate when boxing announcers say a boxer is “down for the count.” I don’t care that he loves Dracula. I just want to know who’s winning.

@KIMMYMONTE

Every time someone says, “I’m aware,” I wait a couple seconds in case they add “wolf.”

@THEMILTRON

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 49 DEPARTMENT OF WIT

A brief memoir about why I’ve decided not to write my memoirs Off the

BY ARLENE AIKENS Record ILLUSTRATION BY JOANA AVILLEZ

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR (by her granddaughter, network news producer Allison Arlene Hansen): Not long before she died, at age 94, I snuck away for a Grandma sleepover. A character who was always full of surprises, she motioned me to her beloved writing desk—black with gold chinoiserie and a white leather top. “That’s yours,” she said. “You’re a writer, like me. You get the purple box inside, too.” I opened the box to find stacks of her stories, some sweet, some adventurous, some droll—just like her. This one, an amusing look back written when she was in her 70s, shows her fondness for the unexpected path.

50 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Dear Children, I spend a great deal of time staring As you know, for years I’ve planned out the window in contemplation. I’ve to write up the memories I’ve been sav- noticed I’m sometimes having a wee ing on scraps of paper since you were bit of trouble getting my eyes to focus young. I’ve kept them put away in safe again, and once in a while I get a little places, like memory hooks holding on twitch in the left one. to funny remarks and actions. I also carry around a notebook in “Guess Who Gets to Keep the White my purse to capture the thoughts I’m Rat for the Summer?” was always one coming up with during the day, when of my favourites. I’m driving around or at the grocery And the one about the frog we store. The notebook takes up so much planned to train for the frog jump at space in my purse! the Calaveras County Fair until your It’s great to have pictures to illustrate father hit it with the lawn mower in the writings—they add so much. But in the backyard. (My training as a nurse finding just the right ones, I have to came in handy when I was called to search through all the boxes, and the splint its leg with a Popsicle stick.) And house is in disarray. In fact, I’m becom- the one about the baby alligators that ing a little bit absent-minded, I have to lived in our pond. admit, from all this creative concentra- We do have an interesting history tion. I forgot to turn on the coffee pot with animals, don’t we? the other morning, and yesterday the Now that you are grown and off hav- potatoes burned when I was writing ing adventures with your own children, down this great description that came I’ve enrolled in a memoir-writing class. to me out of the blue. You know what? It’s such a struggle! Your dad is supportive, but it’s a I wake up in the middle of the night mistake to let him read my articles with just the right thought in my mind. while I’m composing them, I find. Last Grabbing notepaper and pen, I go in week he very nicely said, “I don’t like the bathroom and write it down. Great! the way this sounds. Why don’t you say I don’t want to lose that. such-and-such?” I didn’t handle it too But I’m having trouble getting back well. In fact, I said, “Please! I read this to sleep these days and find myself in class, and they thought it was good. nodding off in my chair after dinner. I’m not changing it.” I also tend to pick at a certain part We are encouraged to be original, so of my head when I’m searching for instead of writing “I remember,” I said exactly the right phrasing. It seems to something like “The long-dormant me the hair is a little thinner now in brain cells were activated again,” and that one area. he said, “That’s corny. Why don’t you

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 51 READER’S DIGEST

Two generations of writers: granddaughter and grandmother.

say ‘sweet memories’?” To which I lonesome. Enjoy the ones I’ve written, replied, “We’re supposed to be original. because I’ve decided not to write any ‘Sweet memories’—that’s so everyday.” more memoirs. Later I decided that mine did sound Love, ridiculous. The right expression did Mom eventually come—during the night. Naturally, I jumped up and got it writ- EPILOGUE ten just the way I wanted. When Grandma gave me those stacks It’s all sort of an exquisite torture, of handwritten stories in the magic lav- as the expression goes. I’m walking ender box, many of which I’d never around with dark circles underneath read, on top was a letter addressed to puffy eyes. the editor of Reader’s Digest. So, my dears, I’ve decided it’s fun to Grandma explained that she had write and relive all the memorable written that letter 100 times. But she’d times I’ve enjoyed in my life and to never sent it, and though many of her share the happy days of your growing- stories made it into her local paper, up years. But I think at my age, I need her life’s dream remained to be pub- my rest. And frankly, I suspect your lished in the magazine. After she died, dad misses me watching those PBS I made it my life’s dream, too, and sent shows and National Geographic spe- her work to your publication. You made

cials on TV with him. He says he’s it, Grandma! HANSEN ARLENE ALLISON BLETZACKER/COURTESY STEPHANIE

52 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca ISTOCK.COM DURING THE THE DURING SHOULDN’T SHOULDN’T 10 THINGS 10 THINGS HOLIDAYS POST ON POST ON SOCIAL SOCIAL MEDIA PERSPECTIVE MORE GREAT READS ON YOU YOU rd.ca/social Rd.ca And six other things are eight strategies to keep to keep strategies eight are rd.ca/peace with eye to eye see Don’t what to do instead) doesn’t drink (and say to someone who you should never “Come on, just one!” the peace this holiday season season holiday this peace the button political issue? rd.ca/sobriety family members on a hot- RELATIONSHIPS SOCIETY Sign up for our free e-newsletter at great Canadian stories? Want a dose daily of DIGEST rd.ca/newsletter YOUR INBOX YOUR TOSTRAIGHT MORE rd.ca READER’S READER’S — | 12

•

2018 Here | 53 DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

54 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca THE RATTLER’S REVENGE

WHEN A TEXAS MAN DECAPITATED THE POISONOUS SNAKE THREATENING HIS WIFE, HE ASSUMED THAT WOULD BE THE END OF IT. HE WAS WRONG.

BY NICHOLAS HUNE-BROWN ILLUSTRATION BY STEVEN P. HUGHES READER’S DIGEST

efore the incident— with its dusty triangular head tensed before his body became and its tail rattling. “Snake!” yelled a battleground for com- Jennifer as she backed away. “Snake!” peting poisons and his When Sutcliffe heard his wife’s cry, B story the subject of zoo- he figured she’d run into one of the logical curiosity—Jeremy Sutcliffe had harmless rat snakes that often showed actually liked snakes. He’d found them up on the property. He grabbed a shovel beautiful, even. to shoo the creature away and jogged Besides, the tattooed 40-year-old around the house to the garden. That’s wasn’t someone who shied away from when he heard the rattling. His wife wild creatures. He was an avid out- was cornered between some shrub- doorsman who took every chance he bery and the wall of the house, a viper could to camp and fish. That love of directly in her path. nature had been part of the reason He first tried to scoop up the snake Sutcliffe and his wife Jennifer, 43, had using the shovel, without success. recently moved to South Texas from Then he did what was necessary: he Kansas. The place they’d bought on raised the garden tool and brought the Lake Corpus Christi, a short drive from edge down hard through the snake’s the Gulf of Mexico, was their dream body just below the head, decapitating home. Or that’s what it was going to the reptile. be. At the moment, they were living in Jennifer went into the house, her a trailer on their one-acre lot, and the heart hammering, while Jeremy headed house was still a fixer-upper. A “total back to the garden. About 10 minutes gut job,” Sutcliffe called it, with the later, when Jennifer said she was pride of someone who plans on doing going to let their two small dogs out, the gutting himself. he decided to move the dead reptile. He On a steamy Sunday morning in May looked at the creature lying limp on 2018, the couple was tidying their yard the ground. Its head rested on a paving in preparation for an evening cookout stone, attached to a stub of body. with their daughter and her two young He bent down to pick up a stick lying children. At around 10:30 a.m., Sutcliffe next to the snake’s head so that he began mowing the lawn while Jennifer could flick it away. But before his hand worked on the garden. She had just even touched the ground, the snake reached down to grab a weed when she attacked—a blur of motion as the crea- saw it: a western diamondback rattle- ture launched itself forward. Burying its snake, right next to her hand. fangs into Sutcliffe’s right hand down Jennifer leaped up as the snake, a to the bone, the snake injected venom metre long, rose into a striking position, that immediately made his hand feel

56 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca like it had been smashed by a massive At the sound of his cry, Jennifer, a weight. “It bit me!” he yelled in horror. trained nurse, had come running. For Sutcliffe, it was like something When she saw her husband struggling out a zombie movie—an undead crea- with the rattlesnake’s head, one thought ture’s final act of revenge. But the truth flashed through her mind: he needed is, bites from decapitated snakes aren’t medical attention, now. She ran back uncommon. “Reptiles can stay alive for into the trailer to get the car keys while quite a long time after sustaining a life- Sutcliffe continued to yank at the limiting injury,” says Christine Rutter, snake’s head until finally the fangs came a veterinary critical-care specialist at loose and he could fling the viper away. Texas A&M University who has seen Jennifer told her husband to get in her share of snakebites. A decapitated the car. She wheeled out onto the broil- snake is like a chicken with its head cut ing Texas asphalt, already on the phone

ONE THOUGHT FLASHED THROUGH JENNIFER’S MIND: HER HUSBAND NEEDED MEDICAL ATTENTION, NOW.

off, only with a much longer survival with 911 dispatchers. They were a half- time because it’s a cold-blooded reptile hour away from the nearest hospital with a slow metabolism. and she had no idea which of the In that moment, however, all Sutcliffe medical centres in the area held anti- was thinking about was that the snake venom. All she knew was that they that he’d killed was now trying to kill didn’t have much time. him. The creature’s jaws were clamped around his hand. Desperate to free JENNIFER SUTCLIFFE had always himself, Sutcliffe inserted the fingers of been quick to act under pressure. In his left hand beneath the snake’s upper Texas, she was a nurse consultant, but jaw and tried to pry the fangs free. He back when she’d worked in hospitals managed to remove one of the fangs she’d always been the go-to person for from his middle finger, but as he tried CPR—someone colleagues would turn to pull the head loose, the viper’s jaw to when competence and quick think- clenched again, burying the fang in his ing could be the difference between ring finger this time. life and death.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 57 READER’S DIGEST

She’s known her husband for their was directing her down the highway entire adult lives. They’d met in the to a spot where an ambulance would summer of 1993, when they were both meet them to bring her husband to the students working at a nursing home. nearest hospital. Mere minutes after She’d liked his sparkling blue eyes and being bitten, however, Sutcliffe was the fact that he was kind. The two already feeling the effects of the venom became friends, then more. coursing through his body. When he They were married a couple of years blinked, he saw nothing but blackness. later and went on to have a son and a “I can’t see,” he said, panic in his voice, daughter. Sutcliffe was handy, a builder before passing out. Jennifer shook her and a tinkerer who worked installing husband with one hand while keeping heating and air conditioning. He the other on the wheel. Sutcliffe woke

A DECAPITATED SNAKE HAS NOTHING TO LOSE. AND SO THE REPTILE EMPTIED ITS VENOM GLANDS INTO SUTCLIFFE.

always seemed to be helping out one up, only to pass out again. Then he neighbour or another. began having a seizure. The 911 oper- In 2011, at the age of 34, Sutcliffe ator told Jennifer to pull over and wait was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré in front of a church for the paramedics. syndrome, a rare and mysterious con- Finally, after the longest 15 minutes dition that causes the immune system of her life—during which Sutcliffe alter- to attack healthy nerve cells. The dis- nated between babbling incoherently ease left Sutcliffe weak and exhausted, and losing consciousness—the para- unable to work more than a few hours medics arrived. They rushed Sutcliffe a day, but the couple got through it into the vehicle and took off down the together. When they bought the house highway with Jennifer speeding behind. in Corpus Christi, it felt like the ideal After just 10 minutes, however, the situation. While she worked, he would ambulance pulled over into the parking slowly create their dream home. lot of an abandoned building. When Now, as Jennifer sped down the high- Jennifer pulled up next to them, they way, she could feel that fantasy slipping told her that Sutcliffe was in bad shape. away. On the phone, the 911 dispatcher His blood pressure had plummeted,

58 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Left: The snake’s head. Right: Jeremy Sutcliffe during dialysis in mid-June, after his first amputation.

and they were worried he wasn’t going and causing internal hemorrhaging. to make it to the hospital. A rattlesnake’s fangs are connected to “We have to get the HALO,” one of venom glands at the back of its head. the paramedics said. Instead of driving Snakes can control how much venom to the hospital half an hour away, they they inject, and because producing were sending for a helicopter that venom takes energy, they typically would get him into a different emer- don’t want to waste it. When cornered, gency room in 10 minutes. Moments an adult rattlesnake will usually later, the chopper touched down and deliver a light defensive strike to scare whisked Sutcliffe away. off a threat. A snake that has been decapitated, RATTLESNAKE VENOM is a miracle however, has nothing to lose. “Think of evolution—a complex cocktail of about it like a Hail Mary pass,” says enzymes and proteins that, when Christine Rutter. “This snake is pained, injected into a victim’s bloodstream, he’s scared and he’s going to do every- acts like a powerful blood thinner, thing he can to defend himself.” And

COURTESY OF JENNIFER SUTCLIFFE JENNIFER OF COURTESY destroying skin tissue and blood cells so the snake that bit Sutcliffe emptied

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 59 READER’S DIGEST its venom glands into his hand. The At 5 p.m., after five hours of work- average snakebite victim is given two ing on Sutcliffe, the doctors came to four doses of anti-venom. In total, to a decision. Sutcliffe’s organs were Sutcliffe received 26. failing—they needed to induce a When Jennifer got to the emergency coma and put him on a ventilator. department at Christus Spohn Hospi- Jennifer numbly agreed. tal Corpus Christi–Shoreline, about an At around 3 a.m., one of the doctors hour and 15 minutes after her hus- approached her. Her husband wasn’t band, she found a hectic scene. There doing well. His blood pressure was were six or seven doctors working on still dangerously low. The mean arter- her husband, desperately trying to get ial pressure (or MAP) that doctors his blood pressure up. Just two hours were looking for was 65—anything after being bitten, Sutcliffe’s right hand lower and the heart can’t push blood

“YOU FIND THAT VENOM AND YOU PUSH IT OUT OF YOUR BODY,” JENNIFER ORDERED. “YOU CAN’T DIE.”

was enormous and swollen, an angry through the body. They had Sutcliffe red creeping up his forearm. on the maximum dosage of four medi- She watched with her nurse’s eyes as cations designed to increase his doctors gave him a host of treatments— blood pressure, but his MAP refused cryoprecipitate and vitamin K to clot to budge above 60. “We’re at the point the blood, and dose after dose of anti- where there’s nothing else we can do,” venom. Jennifer knew IVs: if a patient the doctor said. There was a good needed fluid quickly, you simply chance Sutcliffe wouldn’t make it increased the flow, turning a drip into through the night. a steady trickle. But the doctors here Jennifer felt her heart plummet. She had put the IV bag into an inflatable somehow hadn’t registered the gravity sleeve that they’d pumped up like a of the situation. She went to her hus- blood-pressure cuff, literally squeezing band’s bedside and grabbed his hand. fluid into her husband’s body as fast as “You find that venom and you push it they could. She’d never seen anything out of your body,” she ordered. “You like it before. The sight terrified her. can’t die.”

60 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Over the next half-hour, she stood by For anyone else, the loss of two fin- her husband’s side in the ICU, her eyes gers would be devastating. But Sutcliffe glued to the monitor next to his bed. didn’t see it that way. After getting a Slowly, miraculously, she watched as glimpse of the worst, he was feeling Sutcliffe’s blood pressure ticked up. It positive. About a month after the bite, made it to 65, then 70. The doctors his kidneys were working well enough began taking him off the medications for doctors to take him off dialysis. “I’d and his pressure remained stable. By trade a couple of fingers for my kidneys sunrise the following day, the worst coming back,” he said. was over. Lying in a hospital bed, slowly recov- ering, he’d had time to think. “When I ON MAY 31, five days after the rattle- first came to and things were all right, snake he killed nearly killed him, Jer- I’d cry a lot and think about all the emy Sutcliffe emerged from his coma dumb things I’d done, the people I’ve and found himself in a strange hospital hurt,” says Sutcliffe. He remembered room. His mind was foggy. His entire skipping his kids’ events or ignoring body was swollen with more than 20 Jennifer while he was off working on a kilograms worth of water weight. Pain neighbour’s house. It wasn’t that he’d radiated from his legs, his arms, his done anything so terrible—just that bowels, everywhere. But as he looked his new perspective suddenly made around, he saw that he was surrounded every misstep seem like a tragic waste. by family: his daughter and her chil- The experience had changed him. “The dren, his son, Jennifer. things that used to matter don’t feel The next weeks were difficult. The like they matter as much,” says Sut- mixture of venom and anti-venom had cliffe. “My wife and my family seem so caused severe kidney damage, and Sut- much more important now.” cliffe needed dialysis. The toxins had In late June, he was released from the left him with gallstones, kidney stones hospital and the couple moved back to and fierce abdominal pain. He was so their dream-home-in-progress. And weak he couldn’t stand. The medical one evening in July, they finally had the expenses piled up—close to $60,000— cookout they’d been planning. Their so the couple started a GoFundMe daughter and grandchildren came over, account to pay for the battery of treat- as did a neighbour. Everyone sat out in ments. The fingers of Sutcliffe’s right the garden, eating hamburgers, grilled hand were badly wounded; the doctors corn and potatoes and enjoying the tried skin grafts but were unsuccessful. warm Texas air. The Sutcliffes paused In the end, they were forced to ampu- to take it all in. This was their paradise, tate his ring and middle fingers. and no snake could change that.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 61 PERSPECTIVE

What entering my pet into a cat show taught me about the true nature of felines ild Wh gs BY OMAR MOUALLEM FROMn HAZLITT TILLUSTRATIONS BY GRAHAMi ROUMIEU

62 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca

READER’S DIGEST

and the claws eject from her paws, you I unclipped can see in her dilated pupils 30 million years of natural selection. the kennel We couldn’t have known this when we adopted her as a kitten, but perhaps we manifested it when we chris- latches and tened her Darwin. We named the boy cat Orwell because I liked the theme waited for of brave historical figures, but he never lived up to his title. It’s clear Orwell to exit. which of the two would survive in the wild and which would do better in a After nine hours of pageantry—being beauty pageant. manhandled by judges and relentlessly baby-talked by spectators—this box AT THE EDMONTON Cat Show, plump was the only thing he trusted. Eventu- British shorthairs smiled in their sleep ally my wife, Janae, enticed him with a and regal sphynxes owned their ugly. trail of treats and he sauntered out into Janae and I carried Orwell in his ken- our apartment, woozy after his cat- nel, along with treats, a litter pan and show debut. a big blue ribbon onto which to adhere You are wondering what kind of peo- the gold participation stickers he was ple put their house pet in a cat show. guaranteed to win. We ventured past a But it is the wrong question. The right few dozen fancy pedigrees to the ghet- one: why him and not our other cat? toes of the show hall, where calicos, The boy is a Siamese-cross, and tabbies, torties and the other non- cross-eyed. His coat is like cashmere purebreds were stationed. and he is perilously cuddly. As for his Spectator attendance in the cat- companion, the girl, she’s a plump fancy world is strong, thanks to the blue tortoiseshell—plain-Jane. What Internet’s fascination with felines, but she lacks in looks she makes up for in exhibitor numbers are historically low smarts, proven by her punishment of in North America. It’s an aging and peeing on our bed every time we go expensive hobby, and showing is sur- away on vacation. prisingly physical for the elderly exhib- Her vindictiveness isn’t a trait itors, requiring almost non-stop admired by the cat-fancy world, but schlepping of pets from one side of the it’s to be respected and, occasionally, show hall to another for two long days. feared. When she hunches down and But at $60 to $100 per cat to exhibit, her ears fold back, when her tail lashes compared to just $10 for spectator

64 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca admission, the household pet category Orwell’s coping mechanism, luckily, is a decent revenue driver. was petrification. “We have a Siamese The vast majority of the contenders meatloaf,” the first judge told the in this category are rescues, entered crowd, using the term applied to over- without charge by local charities in weight cats. The spectators in the ring the hopes that someone will adopt awwed as Orwell shivered on the show “Norman” or “Hamish” after seeing bench. She lifted his tail, inspected the what these scruffy orphans are really insides of his ears and rubbed under made of. Knowing my semi-exotic cat his chin. “A true apple-cheeked Sia- would be up against these specimens mese,” she exclaimed. “You don’t see gave me confidence—but not Orwell. it anymore!” For decades, Oriental cats Our boy was cowering in the corner have been bred for pointed faces, but of his kennel. the judge was smitten by his nostalgic Janae was hesitant about my idea of facial traits. putting him in the show from the start and thought I’d traumatized him enough the night before when I’d surprised him with a bath and mango- CRADLING ORWELL’S scented shampoo. QUIVERING BODY, Grooming and hygiene are especially MY WIFE DECLARED vital in the household pet category. A FATWA ON PUTTING Contestants are primarily scored on ANY OF OUR FUTURE grooming, condition, health and also PETS IN A PAGEANT. personality—a criterion subjected to judges’ personal tastes and worth 30 points. It’s the only category requiring After she showed all 14 competing a winning personality, meaning a prop- household pets, she began pinning erly pedigreed but blasé Oriental could ribbons to each kennel from 10th still take gold, but a half-breed like place to first, with a brief declaration Orwell would have to put on a smile. of worth for each one. Our decision to enter Orwell over “For the kitty who lost her ear to Darwin was validated after learning frostbite…10th place!” about the rules on aggression set out “Lily is very elegant, the sweetest by the International Cat Association looking cat…sixth place!” (TICA). While allowances are made for As we neared the top three, Janae timidity in rescues, aggressiveness looked at me with wide eyes. “This won’t be rewarded, and biting results little guy,” said the judge, turning to in disqualification. Orwell. “Old-style traditional Siamese.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 65 READER’S DIGEST

Nice dark features. And he’s not one of Orwell moved in a year later, and those skinny mini cats. Full-body seal Darwin immediately began showing point…third place!” slight predatory behaviour, stalking He had seven more rounds to go, him and swatting him when he got too then another eight the next day, but close. But our new guy was a lovebug, surely if he could snatch bronze in his dumbly following his frenemy, no first attempt, he would be going home matter how loudly she hissed. with a few gold finishes. By the time she was in her terrible twos, which is to say her teens, Darwin OUR HOME IN EDMONTON can be became more withdrawn, but middle split into two eras: pre-Orwell and age has mellowed her out. In recent post-Orwell. years we’ve caught the two cats regu- From the moment we found her at larly snuggling. Always, Darwin was the Humane Society in 2009, Darwin the one grooming Orwell. It appears wanted to be held like a baby, and that affectionate, but according to Cat is how we have always treated her. At Sense: How the New Feline Science Can night, she’d crawl into bed and rigor- Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet, ously lick my beard stubble. Some this is a sign of dominance. All along nights we kept her out, until her cry- she was saying “I own you” to me as ing became so relentless that it was she lapped up my facial hair, and to more tolerable to lose sleep while her him as he napped like a toy in her grip. sandpaper-like tongue scraped off layers of my face. ORWELL PEAKED EARLY and gar- nered a fourth, seventh and 10th place in subsequent rounds. The last judge was explicit about her preferences. “In my ring,” she said, twirling a teaser feather around Orwell’s non-compliant head, “I want cats who are having a good time.” His place standings kept declining, even after the emcee announced that Hamish, a rescue who was gobbling up golds, was going home with his new adoptive parents. Orwell did fine for a rookie, but he lacked something possessed by the Hamishes of the cat world—what Pamela Barrett calls “star quality.”

66 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Barrett, an older woman with a after the cat show, Janae sat me down smart blond bob, who courageously and very seriously asked, “Do you wore a black turtleneck to the cat ring think Darwin is depressed?” in Edmonton, was later awarded I laughed heartily at the absurdity of TICA’s Judge of the Year prize. It’s projecting human conditions onto our essentially the Best in Show of judges; animals—before rubbing Darwin’s anyone who’s sat in her ring knows belly and talking baby to her. “Who’s a why. A former fraud investigator, Bar- belly girl? Yes, you are…” rett is exceptional at pattern recogni- Then, one day, Janae called me in tion and spotting deviations. But the hysterics. “Something is wrong with fancier is also a stellar performer. Bar- Darwin,” she cried. “She’s gone bal- rett speaks directly to the audience, listic! She’s trying to kill Orwell!” explaining every physical facet of each A stray had entered the parking lot cat, with hands so calming that the below while Janae and our two cats animal will let her lift its forelegs to were on the balcony. Interlopers had force it into doing a literal catwalk. become more common lately, and She told me that it’s normal for own- Darwin always watched with interest, ers of the household pet contenders to never aggression. For some reason this take losses very personally. Profes- one stray set her off. sional breeders look at their specimen She growled and yowled, then turned and see quality ears, eyes, coats and to Orwell and saw not her long-time paws, but what about people like me? companion but the devil. When Janae “All they see is love. It hurts them—it tried to protect him, Darwin lunged at hurts me, even as a jaded professional. her, leaving her with deep cuts to her But it is a competition. You have to rise arms and legs. up, figure out what’s wrong and do it We cut Darwin off from the balcony, better next time.” but after two months without outbursts Orwell’s coat and icy blue eyes and the cats snuggling again, I thought impressed judges, but his personality she’d re-earned her privileges. Within was lacking, and there would be no minutes of sliding open the door, chance at improvement. Halfway Darwin had Orwell cornered. When through the first day, Janae, cradling I picked him up, she attacked us both. his quivering body, declared a fatwa In that moment, I realized I hadn’t on putting any of our future pets in brought a fur baby into my home, but a pageant. a wild animal. The veterinary world calls it “redi- A MENTAL-HEALTH NURSE, Janae’s rected aggression,” a sort of kitty men- cat intuition is uncanny. About a year tal illness that triggers sudden spurts

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 67 READER’S DIGEST of violence in territorial cats. Drunk our wild girl for the emotional and guys punch holes in walls; cats tear at physical safety of both cats, we couldn’t the luxurious fur of their once-friends. give up on Darwin. We’ve medicated Studies show that it’s almost entirely her with anti-anxieties. We’ve invested unique to indoor cats in small house- in cans of Feliway, a synthetic phero- holds inhabited by two or fewer mone that mimics a calming hormone humans. The vet explained to us that that mother cats excrete through their aggression hormones were pent up milk to keep their kittens at peace. from the sight of all those strays, plus Another visit to the vet revealed that several new neighbours’ cats on the she had several gum lesions and cav- balconies surrounding her, and pos- ities, so we had five teeth removed, sibly the one-time stench of hundreds hoping that her outbursts were caused of show cats on Orwell. It was inevit- by physical, not emotional, pain. She able that she would snap. came home with a swollen face and Cats aren’t here to make friends, and saintliness like never seen before— pageants cannot undo their primal ten- until the morphine faded. dencies. “Cats today have essentially These days, Darwin’s redirected the same senses, the same brains and aggression still flares up, but never so the same emotional repertoire as their extremely and never for long. Some- wildcat forebears,” reads Cat Sense. “As thing has changed, but I’m not entirely far as we know, all that has changed in sure it’s her. It turns out that Orwell their brains is a new ability to form has finally started defending himself. social attachments to people.” When she growls, he growls. When she This may be nature, but Janae and I swats, he punches back. He stands his weren’t ready to accept it. Even after ground and she backs off. Our boy is friends said they’d consider adopting finally living up to his name.

MOTOR WAYS

Never have more children than you have car windows.

ERMA BOMBECK

Always focus on the front windshield and not the rearview mirror.

COLIN POWELL

68 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca

Holiday traditions don’t always have to be kosher A Holly Jolly Jewish Christmas BY ROSE TEKEL ILLUSTRATION BY CHLOE CUSHMAN FROM THE UNITED CHURCH OBSERVER

70 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca HEART

ALTHOUGH I’M JEWISH, I’ve celebrated we had saved all year. I would receive Christmas most of my life. I was born a present or two—one Christmas, my in 1948 in postwar Poland, the only grandmother gave me a lovely red chil- child of two Holocaust survivors. My dren’s purse with a few pennies in it. parents and I lived in one of the few We would also have food that we didn’t apartment buildings still standing in have at other times of the year, delica- Warsaw at that time. While my family cies such as oranges, nuts, dates and was Jewish, we had several relatives little animals made from marzipan. who had converted to Catholicism when they married. I had no idea that some in the family were Jewish and It came as quite a surprise others Catholic. They were just family. In the 1950s, we were living in a to me that being Jewish country that was officially Communist I wasn’t supposed to but also had deep roots in Catholi- participate in all this fun. cism. Poland had been devastated by the war and was still in very poor economic straits. Products—including By my 10th birthday, in 1958, we had basic foods—were scarce. It’s difficult left Poland and settled in Montreal. for many of us living in Canada now We soon acquired a television set, and to imagine Christmas without the I learned a great deal about North commercials or songs about Santa American life from this box, including and Rudolph. But when I was growing the whole range of ways one can cele- up in Poland, television had not yet brate Christmas. Listening to the radio, arrived, and those things had no bear- I learned the tunes and words to all the ing on our ideas and desires about Christmas songs, and going to a Protes- Christmas. I do recall hearing carols tant school, I quickly adopted the layers on the radio, but these were part of the of traditions, practices and values regional folk culture. that make up Christmas. I particu- Christmas was a time of year when larly loved “Rudolph the Red-Nosed my mother and I would make tree dec- Reindeer,” sung by Burl Ives. Another orations from walnuts and sugar cook- favourite was going to see the Christ- ies, which were wrapped in silver foil mas displays, with their mechanical,

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 71 READER’S DIGEST plush toys, in the Ogilvy’s window on which means that we have the same Ste-Catherine Street. idea of our beginnings, the purpose It came as quite a surprise to me that of our existence and how we relate to being Jewish I wasn’t supposed to par- God, other creatures and all aspects ticipate in all this fun. Some children at of nature. Christmas can be a great school told me that Jewish people are meeting place for Christians and Jews. not supposed to celebrate Christmas. The other question people may ask We still had a Christmas tree, but I me is, “How do you feel about not get- started to realize that it wasn’t quite ting gifts at Christmastime?” kosher. My parents had many friends My answer is rooted in my child- who weren’t Jewish, so we spent Christ- hood experiences. I grew up in a fam- mas with them. There, I was introduced ily where we shared and gave gifts to the Canadian Christmas dinner— easily at many times of the year. The turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, gifts, however, were usually more a gravy and cranberries. token of our fondness for one another than representations of wealth and status. We didn’t feel the pressure to My standard response is, buy, buy, buy. I don’t wish to roman- ticize the poverty caused by war. And “Why wouldn’t I want I’m glad that most of my friends have to celebrate the birth never experienced that kind of life. of a good Jewish boy?” My point is simply that the giving and receiving of lavish gifts isn’t central to my experience of Christmas. When Christians learn that I’m Jew- Christmas and Hanukkah for me are ish, they occasionally ask me: “Do you a time when the darkness of the year is celebrate Christmas?” My standard pierced by the warmth and joy of being response is, “Certainly. Why wouldn’t with others who want to share music, I want to celebrate the birth of a good food, drink and expressions of affec- Jewish boy?” tion. This probably isn’t typical of Jew- Many people are taken aback by my ish people, nor do I necessarily think it answer—some even seem offended. Yet should be. But I’m extremely grateful I think it’s very important that we real- to all my friends who for many years ize and recognize the common roots of have shared Christmas with me. And these two heritages. We have the same I’ve always been delighted to be part creation story in our common Bible, of the celebration.

72 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Laughter THE BEST MEDICINE

I LOVE SINGING in the shower, but the shower hates my singing. How THE BEST JOKE I EVER TOLD do I know? Every time I sing in the BY AMY BUGG shower, the shower says “Shh!” WARREN YAU, Markham, Ont. I miss my old car. We would always play OPENING UP this fun game where Q: When is a door not a door? the engine light would A: When it’s ajar. reddit.com come on, and then I would just call its bluff. EXHAUSTED BUNCH Alberta-based stand-up comedian Q: Why was King Arthur’s army too Amy Bugg has appeared on tired to fight? CBC’s Grownups Read Things A: It had too many sleepless knights. They Wrote as Kids. @DADSAYSJOKES

TRUE CRIME Q: What happened to the frog that parked illegally? A: He got toad. reddit.com

TRAVEL TIPS If you need something to pass time on a plane, over the course of the flight, slowly and silently apply an entire face of clown makeup. @BRIDGER_W

Send us your original jokes! You could earn $50 and be featured in the magazine.

KRIS LABELLE KRIS LABELLE See page 9 or rd.ca/joke for details.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 73 HEALTH

MIND OVER MEDS SURPRISING NEW RESEARCH IS REVEALING THAT PLACEBOS ARE MORE EFFECTIVE THAN WE THINK

BY ROBERT ANTHONY SIEGEL FROM SMITHSONIAN

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“HERE THEY ARE,” John Kelley said, doesn’t try to trick a patient. These taking a paper bag off his desk and are called open-label placebos—fakes pulling out a big amber pill bottle. explicitly prescribed as such. Inside were the capsules we’d designed: So in 2015, I had turned to my old a magical concoction to treat my friend for help with my writer’s block. chronic writer’s block and the panic “I think we can design a pill for that,” attacks and insomnia that always come he’d told me initially. “We’ll fine-tune along with it. it for maximum effectiveness, colour, I’ve known Kelley since we were shape, size, dosage and time before undergrads at Harvard in the early working. What colour do you associate 1980s. Now he’s a psychology profes- with writing well?” sor at Endicott College in Massachu- I closed my eyes. “Gold.” setts and the deputy director of PiPS, “I’m not sure the pharmacist can do Harvard’s Program in Placebo Studies metallic. It may have to be yellow.” & Therapeutic Encounter. Launched Over the next few weeks, we disin 2011, it’s the first program in the cussed my treatment in greater detail. world devoted to the interdisciplinary Kelley suggested capsules rather than study of the placebo effect. pills, as they would look more scien- The term placebo refers to a dummy tific and therefore have a stronger pill passed off as a genuine pharma- effect. He also made them short act- ceutical or, more broadly, any sham ing: he believed a two-hour time limit treatment presented as a real one. By would cut down on my tendency to definition, a placebo is a deception, a procrastinate. We composed a set of lie. But doctors have been handing instructions that covered not only them out for centuries, and patients how to take them but also what they have been getting better—whether were going to do. Finally, we ordered through the power of belief or sugges- 100 capsules, which cost a hefty $405, tion, no one’s exactly sure. Even today, though they contained nothing but when the use of placebos is considered cellulose. Placebos are not covered unethical by many medical profession- by insurance. als, a 2008 survey of 679 American doc- Kelley reassured me: “The price tors showed that about half of them increases the sense of value. It will prescribe medications such as vita- make them work better.” mins and over-the-counter painkillers I called the pharmacy to pay with primarily for their placebo value. my credit card. After the transaction, Interestingly, the PiPS researchers the pharmacist said to me, “I’m sup- have discovered that placebos seem to posed to counsel customers on the work well even when a practitioner correct way to take their medications,

76 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca but honestly, I don’t know what to tell something soothing about hearing you about these.” Kelley respond, about his gentle man- “My guess is that I can’t overdose.” ner. As it turns out, that’s another key “That’s true.” element of the placebo effect: an “But do you think there’s a chance empathetic caregiver. The healing I could get addicted?” force, or whatever you want to call it, “Ah, well, now that’s a really inter- passes into you from the placebo, but esting question.” it helps if it starts with someone who We laughed, but I felt uneasy. Open wants you to get better. label had started to feel like one of Back home, I sat down at the dining those postmodern magic shows in room table with a glass of water and a which the magician explains the illu- notebook. Take two capsules with water sion even as they per- 10 minutes before writ- form the trick—except ing, said the label. Below there was no magician. that: placebo, no refills. Everyone was making it I worried that I unfolded the direc- up as they went along. my anxieties tions: “This placebo has about the pills been designed especially ONE OF THE KEY ele- not working for you, to help you write ments of the placebo might with greater freedom effect is the way our ultimately and more spontaneous expectations shape our prevent them and natural feeling. It is experience. As Kelley meant to help eliminate handed over the pills, he from working. the anxiety and self- wanted to heighten my doubt that can some- expectancy, as psychol- times act as a drag on ogists call it, as much as possible. He your creative self-expression. Positive showed me the official-looking stuff expectations are helpful but not essen- that came with the yellow capsules: tial: it is natural to have doubts. the pill bottle, the label, the prescrip- Nevertheless, it is important to take tion, the receipt from the pharmacy the capsules faithfully and as directed and the instruction sheet we’d written because previous studies have shown together, which he read to me out that adherence to the treatment regi- loud. Then he asked me whether I had men increases placebo effects.” any questions. I swallowed two capsules and, per Suddenly we were in the midst of the instructions, closed my eyes and an earnest conversation about my tried to imagine the pills doing what I fear of failure as a writer. There was wanted them to do. But still, I worried

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 77 READER’S DIGEST

that my anxieties about their not work- Then, one night in bed, my eyes ing might prevent them from working. opened. My heart was pounding. The Over the next few days, I felt my clock said 3 a.m. I got up and sat in an anxiety level soar while at work and armchair and, since my pill bottle was when filling out the self-report sheets. there on the desk, took two capsules, “On a scale of zero to 10, where zero is just to calm down. They made me feel no anxiety and 10 is the worst anxiety a little better, but I didn’t actually get you have ever experienced, please rate to writing. In the morning, I emailed how you felt during the session today,” Kelley, who wrote back saying that, one section read. I was giving myself like any medication, the placebo might eights out of a misplaced sense of take a couple of weeks to build up to a

restraint, though I wanted to give 10s. therapeutic dose. COHEN MATTHEW BY PHOTOS

78 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca TED KAPTCHUK, Kelley’s boss and the ineffective. But in the acupuncture founder and director of PiPS, has trav- studies, Kaptchuk was struck by the elled an eccentric path. He became fact that patients in the sham treat- embroiled in radical politics in the ment group were actually getting bet- 1960s and studied Chinese medicine ter. He points out that the same is true in Macau. After returning to the United of many pharmaceuticals. In experi- States, he practised acupuncture in ments with post-operative patients, for Cambridge, Mass., and ran a pain example, prescription pain medica- clinic before being hired at Harvard tions lost up to half their effectiveness Medical School. But he’s not a doctor, when the patient did not know they and the degree he earned in Macau had just been given a painkiller. A isn’t recognized here. study of the migraine drug rizatriptan Kaptchuk’s outsider status has given found no statistical difference between him an unusual amount of intellectual a placebo labelled rizatriptan and freedom. In the intensely specialized actual rizatriptan labelled placebo. world of academic medicine, he rou- What Kaptchuk found was some- tinely crosses the lines between clinical thing akin to a blank spot on the map. research, medical history, anthropology “In medical research, everyone is and bioethics. “They originally hired me always asking, ‘Does it work better at Harvard to do research in Chinese than a placebo?’ So I asked the obvi- medicine,” he told me. His interests ous question that nobody was asking: shifted when he tried to reconcile his ‘What is a placebo?’ And I realized that own successes as an acupuncturist with nobody ever talked about that.” his colleagues’ complaints about the Working with Kelley and other col- lack of hard scientific evidence. “At leagues, he’s found that the placebo some point in my research, I asked effect is not a single phenomenon but myself, If the medical community rather a group of interrelated mechan- assumes that Chinese medicine is just isms. It’s triggered not just by fake a placebo, why don’t we examine this drugs but by the symbols and rituals phenomenon more deeply?” of health care itself—everything from Some studies have found that the prick of an injection to the sight of when acupuncture is performed with a person in a lab coat. retractable needles or lasers, or when And the effects aren’t just imaginary, the pricks are made in the wrong spots, as was once assumed. Functional the treatment still works. By conven- magnetic resonance imaging, which tional standards, this would make acu- maps brain activity by detecting small puncture a sham. If a drug doesn’t changes in blood flow, shows that outperform a placebo, it’s considered placebos, like real pharmaceuticals,

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 79 READER’S DIGEST actually trigger neurochemicals such of anxiety, and they deal poorly with as endorphins and dopamine and acti- stress. Warriors—people with lower vate areas of the brain associated with dopamine levels—can show lesser lev- analgesia and other forms of symp- els of attention and memory under tomatic relief. normal conditions, but their abilities “Nobody would believe my research increase under stress. The placebo without the neuroscience,” Kaptchuk component thus fits into the worrier/ told me. “People ask, ‘How does a warrior personality types as one might placebo work?’ I want to say by rituals expect: worriers tend to be more sen- and symbols, but they say, ‘No, how sitive to placebos; warriors tend to be does it really work?’ and I say, ‘Oh, less sensitive. you know, dopamine,’ and then they I told Hall, a little sheepishly, about feel better.” my one-man placebo trial, not sure To gain a greater understanding of how she would react. “Brilliant,” she the physiology, PiPS has begun spon- said, and showed me a box of homeo- soring research into the genetics of pathic pills she used to take to help placebo response. After meeting with with pain in her arm from an old Kaptchuk, I visited the Division of Pre- injury. “My placebo. The only thing ventive Medicine at Brigham and that helped.” Women’s Hospital to see Kathryn Tayo Hall, a geneticist. She studies the gene WHAT MIGHT THE FUTURE of place- for catechol-O-methyltransferase (also bos look like? Kaptchuk imagines doc- called COMT), an enzyme that metab- tors one day prescribing open-labels olizes dopamine. In one study, Hall to their patients as a way of treating found that the type of COMT enzyme certain symptoms without the costs patients possessed seemed to deter- and side effects that can come with mine whether a placebo would work real pharmaceuticals. Other research- for them. ers are focusing on placebos’ ability to Is the COMT gene “the placebo help patients with hard-to-treat symp- gene”? Hall was quick to put her find- toms such as nausea and chronic pain. ings into context. “The expectation is Still others talk about making conven- that the placebo effect is a knot involv- tional medical treatments even more ing many genes and biosocial factors,” effective by using the symbols and she told me, not just COMT. rituals of health care (such as getting There’s another layer: worriers— an injection from someone in a white people who have higher dopamine lev- lab coat) to add a placebo effect. els—can exhibit greater levels of atten- Hall would like to see placebo tion and memory but also greater levels research lead to more individualized

80 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca medicine; she posits that isolating a in you,” I told them, “because you’re genetic marker could allow doctors to going to work anyway.” tailor treatment to a patient’s individ- One night, my 12-year-old daughter ual level of placebo sensitivity. Citing was having trouble sleeping. She was the research showing that an empa- upset about a situation with the other thetic caregiver is key, Kelley also kids in school; we were talking about hopes to refocus our attention on the it, trying to figure out how best to help, relationship between patient and care- but in the meantime, she needed to giver, reminding us all of the healing get some rest. power of kindness and compassion. “Would you like a placebo?” I asked. I’d been taking my writing capsules She seemed interested. “Like the for two weeks when I began to feel an ones you take?” effect. My sentences were awkward I got my bottle and did what John and slow, and I disliked them as much Kelley had done for me in his office, as ever, but I didn’t throw them out: explaining the scientific evidence and I didn’t want to admit to that in the showing her the impressive label. “Pla- self-reports I was keeping, sheets full cebos help many people. It helped me, of notes such as “Bit finger instead of and it will help you.” She took two of erasing.” When the urge to delete my the shiny yellow capsules and within work became overwhelming, I would minutes was deeply asleep. swallow a couple of extra capsules (I Standing in the doorway, I shook a was way, way over my dosage—had couple more capsules into the palm in fact reached Valley of the Dolls lev- of my hand. I popped them into my els of excess). “I don’t have to believe mouth and went back to work.

SMITHSONIAN (MAY 2017), ©2017 BY SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM SMITHSONIAN ENTERPRISES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN ANY MEDIA IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

THE ART OF THE DEAL

My girlfriend wanted to watch The Hunger Games and I didn’t so we compromised, and now we’re gonna watch The Hunger Games.

@JEWJON

I DEMAND to be in good shape and I REFUSE to do anything to make that happen. Those are my terms.

@CHASEMIT

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 81

INSPIRATION THE MARVELLOUS MAKING OF CANADA’S MOST AUTISM- FRIENDLY TOWN

BY VALERIE HOWES FROM TODAY’S PARENT ILLUSTRATION BY PETE RYAN

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 83 READER’S DIGEST

IN MANY WAYS, Channel-Port aux Autism is a developmental disorder Basques is a typical Newfoundland on a spectrum, and every person living town. It’s a place where passing stran- with it has a unique pattern and sever- gers say hello and where drivers slow ity of symptoms. Some kids with autism down and smile so pedestrians can can practically blend in with classmates jaywalk at their leisure. Newfound- in a regular school, while others will landers are known for being friendly, need caregivers to look after them into but the people of Channel-Port aux their adult lives. Basques have taken human kindness It’s sometimes challenging for the to a whole new level. parents of kids with ASD, too: all they Over six years, the town has gone want is for their children to feel from having zero local resources for accepted and be happy. Amazingly, kids with autism spectrum disorder through a grassroots initiative that has (ASD) to becoming Canada’s first captured the imagination of the whole autism-friendly town. In the summer town, Channel-Port aux Basques has of 2017, then-mayor Todd Strickland become a place where that’s not only even made it official with a declaration possible but also normal. signing at the town hall. Of the 300 kids in the town’s ele- And it all began with two local mentary school, 14 have been diag- women who cared, and wouldn’t take nosed with ASD. The Public Health no for an answer. Agency of Canada estimates that ASD affects one in 66 children between the THE HUMAN BRAIN takes in informa- ages of five and 17 in Canada, but tion about the world through all the numbers are most prevalent in New- senses and filters it as required. But foundland, at one in 57 children. As imagine if all the information you took yet, nobody knows why. in from a simple walk down the street Channel-Port aux Basques, a town was coming at you all at once, as it of 3,665, is the gateway to Newfound- does for a child with ASD. The noise of land and Labrador from mainland passing cars, chirping birds and peo- Canada—a seven-hour sail from Cape ple talking would be like having three Breton Island. Up until 2013, parents of radios tuned to different stations at kids with ASD felt incredibly isolated. once, turned up so loudly that all you’d If you wanted to join a support group want to do is hold your hands over or access basic resources for your your ears. If you’re nonverbal and not child, it was a two-and-a-half-hour able to tell anybody what you need or drive to the nearest city, Corner Brook. how you feel, you might even want to But that all changed just months rock or scream or bang your head. after April Billard’s son, William, was

84 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca diagnosed with ASD in 2010. Billard “I couldn’t walk past your house two grew up in Isle aux Morts, a 15-minute or three times a day and know you drive from Channel-Port aux Basques, have a child in there who needs help,” where she now lives with her husband she told the Billards. “I’ll do it.” and two kids, William, 11, and Gina, 7, who also has autism. ONCE WILLIAM’S home-therapy Billard vividly remembers the began in 2011, Billard and Chaisson moment William was diagnosed. Even became fast friends. A year later, after though he was the same child she knew venting together about the dire situa- and loved, everything suddenly seemed tion for local families dealing with different. Instinctively, she’d known a children with ASD, they decided to diagnosis was coming because of his take matters into their own hands. speech delays, lack of eye contact and They resolved to make Channel-Port fussiness when touched. Still, she aux Basques into the town they

IN 2012, THE SITUATION FOR LOCAL FAMILIES DEALING WITH CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER WAS DIRE. didn’t know much about ASD. Desper- dreamed of living in—one where par- ate for guidance, she turned to Joan ents felt supported and kids with ASD Chaisson, a special-education teacher could participate in life to the fullest. who had retired a couple years before. Together, they co-founded Autism After 30 years of service, not work- Involves Me (AIM) in January 2013, ing had been a hard adjustment for which started out as a parents’ support Chaisson, then 54, and she was toying group with only four members. They with the idea of setting up a consult- would talk about challenges and get ancy business for parents. She eventu- their kids together to play in a family ally realized, however, that the service room filled with sensory toys. They built would be unsustainable in a small a library of specialized parenting books town with limited resources, and she and resources and started thinking didn’t especially want to ask for money about what else they could do to make from people whose lives had been life richer for their kids outside of that turned upside down by a diagnosis. safe bubble.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 85 READER’S DIGEST

AIM’s vision was to have autism about a child’s biggest passion (such services and support integrated into as dinosaurs and trains) so the server the fabric of its members’ hometown, can throw in a question about that rather than siloed as special-needs to help them feel comfortable and offerings. “It’s not that the town develop their social skills. wouldn’t do it before,” says Chaisson, The next step is to get the child to sit explaining that it just took a bit of in a booth without wanting to make a organization to bring about what was dash for the door. When that feels always possible. comfortable, the child will order from Since working with William, Chais- the menu, just as they practised in son has moved on to assist several local run-throughs with Chaisson at home. kids who have ASD, including helping Chaisson has a way of making peo- them rehearse life skills out in the ple feel inspired and excited about the community. As she did with William, small changes they can implement to

WHAT SUPRISED CHAISSON AND BILLARD MOST WAS HOW LOCAL PEOPLE WITHOUT KIDS ON THE SPECTRUM WANTED TO HELP. she breaks down each activity (such as accommodate and welcome families going to the post office or ordering at affected by autism. And her outings a restaurant) into steps. But before she have had a ripple effect: within does that, she goes into a business to months, AIM evolved from a low-key tell staff about the child she is bringing support group into an active move- in, including their abilities, challenges ment with 67 members. and specific goal for the day. What surprised the founders most For instance, if a child is struggling was how local people who didn’t even with going to loud restaurants, Chais- have kids on the spectrum wanted to son might encourage them to just walk lend their support. through the door so they can see what it looks like. She’ll drop off cue cards IT’S LATE AUGUST 2017 when Chais- to the staff so they can ask the child son drops into the only barbershop in simple questions they can understand. Channel-Port aux Basques with Elyas, She might also share a few details an 11-year-old she is coaching. Barber

86 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Edgar Allen recalls the first time he cut will ever have your back. But when you the boy’s curls three years ago. “When have people in your community who I say he needed a haircut, I mean he are willing to learn, it means a lot.” needed a haircut,” he says. On Elyas’s first visit, Allen had to fol- IN ANY COASTAL TOWN, where life low him around the barbershop for a revolves around boats and beaches, good hour to coax the nervous child to every child should learn how to swim. submit to the clippers. But three years For kids with ASD, it’s vital. “Children after that first cut, Elyas trusts Allen. who are on the autism spectrum are The barber speaks in a soothing voice. drawn to water,” says Wanda Merrigan, And as Chaisson recommended, he the facility manager at the Bruce II always shows kids with autism the Sports Centre. A recent report from instrument he is about to use and Columbia University states that Amer- guides them through the next step so icans with ASD have a substantially

IN ANY COASTAL TOWN, EVERY CHILD SHOULD LEARN HOW TO SWIM. FOR KIDS WITH ASD, IT’S VITAL. the vibration of clippers or the sensa- heightened risk for death from injury, tion of gel on the scalp won’t shock a with drowning among the top causes. child with sensory sensitivities. Unfortunately, for children with ASD, On this visit, after only 20 minutes group swimming lessons can feel like in the chair, Elyas is giggling as Allen an assault on the senses—voices blows stray clippings off his neck with bouncing off concrete walls, getting a converted vacuum. “You see how splashed by surprise and the screech calm he is now?” says Allen, as he of blowing whistles. After Chaisson offers the boy a lollipop for each hand. and the AIM group came to chat with What Allen does in his barbershop the Sports Centre’s team about how isn’t groundbreaking, but little changes they could do things differently, they can make a huge difference for kids decided to offer one-on-one classes for with ASD. As Billard says, “When kids on the spectrum. Merrigan hand- you’re the mom of a child with autism, picked three swimming instructors she it’s just so easy to think that nobody knew would be patient and flexible.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 87 READER’S DIGEST

Typically, swimming teachers check turns to work out their anxiety and off boxes as the kids learn new skills in develop patience. And in partnership a set order. But for these private les- with AIM, the centre now has a mini- sons, Chaisson instructed the young gym full of sensory-play equipment, teachers to take their cues from the including “the squeeze machine,” a kids themselves. The children might piece of apparatus with giant foam spend the first nine lessons simply rollers that kids can roll their entire wading in the shallow end. Then, on bodies through. It provides a sooth- week 10, all of a sudden they’ll want to ing sensation for many kids with ASD venture out of their depth with a flota- and is just plain fun for all the pre- tion device, maybe even try to dog- schoolers in the town. paddle. “It’s always a good day when a child learns to swim,” says Merrigan, “I LOVE THIS PLACE,” says Isaac, a “and the days when children on the 10-year-old child on the spectrum who

HOTEL PORT AUX BASQUES WAS DUBBED “CANADA’S FIRST AUTISM-FRIENDLY HOTEL” IN NATIONAL MEDIA. spectrum do it are doubly exciting— has grown up in Channel-Port aux everybody cheers.” Basques. It’s the third week of August in As one of the group’s special swim- 2017, and he is on a boat tour with local ming instructors, 18-year-old Chloe lobster fishermen, zipping past the Munden felt empowered by what she town’s boardwalk. Isaac especially learned. “It has made me a more enjoys Cheeseman’s Beach (“The understanding person,” she says. “I’m orange flowers there look like the fire really proud that I can help people flowers in Mario!”) and is fascinated by reach their goals.” the region’s geology (“I have a collec- Kids with autism also come to the tion of 48 rocks!”). But his favourite Bruce II for the full gamut of fitness place in town is the sensory room that activities. They use the centre’s bowl- opened at Hotel Port aux Basques ing alley during off-peak hours, and earlier that year. staff bring down a small trampoline Chaisson had approached Cathy for the kids to bounce on between Lomond, the hotel’s owner, to suggest

88 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca that she make the hotel autism- that we were doing autism-sensitivity friendly for local kids and travellers. training, other businesses asked if they A singer-songwriter in her spare time, could send employees, so we opened the hotelier has a sister with Down’s up the hotel and did a second session,” syndrome and needed no convincing. says Lomond. “It really makes me She ended up making so many proud that our community has gone changes for ASD families that Hotel out of its way to accommodate chil- Port aux Basques was dubbed “Cana- dren on the autism spectrum.” da’s first autism-friendly hotel” in national media, and the phone rang AS ISAAC PREPARES to leave his off the hook with bookings. beloved sensory room, he makes an In addition to repurposing a staff announcement. “This hotel deserves gym into a room filled with calming to be treated to more than three-and- toys, books and sensory equipment, a-half stars,” he says, striding through Lomond made a digital slide show the lobby. “Maybe four-and-a-half tour of her hotel to help kids with ASD stars?” he adds. “And if they had a cope with the unfamiliar. swimming pool, maybe even five.” She also created picture menus for “You don’t have to throw millions the dining room so non-verbal kids of dollars at a program,” says Isaac’s could point to their meals of choice. mother, Candace Matthews. “You (The kitchen will also make special don’t have to build anything. All you meals to accommodate dietary restric- have to do is open your mind, ask tions and re-create favourite dishes questions and be open to making from home.) small changes and accommodations. The Autism Society of Newfoundland I would never consider leaving Port and Labrador (ASNL) came in to train aux Basques now. It’s just golden—you hotel staff. “When word got around wouldn’t believe it.”

“A” FOR EFFORT

My mother says, “the reward for hard work is hard work,” and that’s the truth. It’s satisfying to ﬁnish something and feel like it’s the best you can do.

ALISON KRAUSS, musician

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 89 FAMILY

REWARD: $500 No Questions Asked While my father was in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, our family’s loyal hound was kidnapped. We had to get him back— for his own sake, but also for my dad.

BY COURTNEY SHEA ILLUSTRATION BY GENEVIEVE SIMMS

90 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca

READER’S DIGEST

Cue the movie montage in which a pet becomes fully integrated into a family: birthdays, moving days, heart- breaks and holidays, Trevi was there for all of it. Except Christmas. For whatever reason he hated that day and would skulk around on the third floor, refusing to join in the fun and earning one of his many nicknames: the Grinch. Trevi loved spending time at our cottage in Huntsville, Ont., where he was once almost captured by a hawk. Per my dad’s account, he walked out the My dog, Trevi, had been gone for front door one day to see a giant set of almost two weeks when I finally got the talons swooping down on our tiny pup, tip that would lead me to him. I was and hurled a laundry basket in the taping yet another “MISSING” sign to bird’s direction just in time. I am not a lamppost when a young woman 100 per cent sold on the particulars of named Melissa approached. this story, but it is now family lore. We were standing outside a Tim After my dad was diagnosed with Hortons in downtown Toronto—Trevi’s Alzheimer’s in 2008, the cottage became last known whereabouts. “I’ve seen a sanctuary and the site of many happy him,” she told me. At this stage of the memories along the way to goodbye. search I had gotten a lot of false leads, I often think of him driving his Jeep but something about her solemn eyes through the backwoods, blaring Frank made me believe her. Sinatra or John Denver, his “loyal If I wanted to find my dog, she said, hound” hanging out the back. I would first have to find Cat Man. As my dad’s health declined, Trevi was a companion and a comfort, forever TREVI JOINED MY FAMILY twenty years crooked in beside him on the couch. ago—a Shih Tzu poodle mix the colour When he moved into a home, we would of fresh baked bread. In my house often bring Trevi along on our visits— there were three girls and with two of his familiar pant made dark times a us leaving for boarding school in little brighter. Italy, my parents reasoned a puppy would help fill the void for my young- IT WAS ABOUT FIVE months later, in est sister. We named him after the the spring of 2012, that Trevi went fountain in Rome. missing. My mom had tied him up

92 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca outside Tim Hortons while she We split up to canvass anyone who popped in to order the usual (coffee might have seen something. It wasn’t for her, a plain Timbit for Trevi). When lost on me that these valuable poten- she returned, the dog was gone. She tial witnesses were the same homeless scanned up and down the block and people who faded into the background across the street. Nothing. She spent of my daily commute. Most were the next several days searching. friendly and happy to talk—some a By the time she finally told my sister little too happy, pretending to know Cynthia and me what happened, Trevi something about Trevi’s whereabouts had been missing for 10 days. I was just to continue the conversation. gutted. And dumbstruck. Why hadn’t she said something? But I also under- stood. My mom shouldered so much during my dad’s illness—an eternally HAVING A PET GO brave face in spite of her private grief. MISSING IS HORRIBLE. At first she didn’t tell us Trevi was ALL I COULD gone because she hoped to find him THINK ABOUT WAS on her own. And then I think it was WHO COULD BE just too sad to say out loud. Her daily check-ins with the city’s MISTREATING HIM. animal services department had produced one useful tip: the day after Trevi’s disappearance, someone had I had just one really bad experience, called to report a man walking a small when a group of men gathered in the dog on a red leash outside Jack Astor’s entryway to a shelter looked at my on Front Street. The anonymous tip- posters and said my dog had probably ster said it was odd to see a man who been eaten. They laughed. I ran out appeared to be living on the street with onto the sidewalk and burst into tears. a pet who looked recently groomed. Having a pet go missing is a horrible It was our only clue, and we ran experience. All I could think about was with it—“we” being me, my boyfriend, who could be mistreating him. Trevi John, my sister Cynthia and her new was old at this point—more than 100 boyfriend (now husband), Chris. If he in dog years—and mostly blind. He had any reservations about joining our was also very much my dad’s dog, so doggy detective hunt, he didn’t show from the start, his absence took on the it as we got to work plastering the area weight of our greater loss. with signs promising a $500 reward, The odds of success grew more dis- “No questions asked.” mal by the day, but hunting for Trevi

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 93 READER’S DIGEST was something we could actually do. In EVEN TODAY, WHEN I think about the that sense it was cathartic and also what reunion, I instantly hear doggy nails my dad would have done. His diligence on linoleum flooring—the sound that was another matter of family lore. He came seconds before Trevi bounded once rented a metal detector to track around the corner. If his adventures down one of my mom’s earrings when had distressed him, he didn’t show it. she lost it on the beach. (He found it.) I, on the other hand, was a mess, crying and laughing and rolling around THE TURNING POINT came on day on the ground. three, when I met Melissa outside Tim Hortons, where she sometimes held the door for change. Cat Man, she explained, often hung out by the heated AS A FAMILY WE grates outside the bank on the same MOURNED MY DAD block. He usually kept cats, which is WHILE HE WAS ALIVE. why she remembered Trevi almost two WHEN HE WENT weeks later. I left her my cell number PEACEFULLY, IT WAS and promised to check in. A GIFT AND A RELIEF. Less than an hour later, an unfamiliar number came up on my phone. “May I speak with Courtney?” asked a male voice. Turns out Matthew had already “Is this Cat Man?” I replied, taking been there, trying to claim Trevi so great pains to sound calm. he could make the trade-off and get “My name,” he said with slight but the reward. “I told him to get lost,” detectable indignance, “is Matthew.” said the woman behind the desk, Matthew told me that he thought who had finally made the connection Trevi had been abandoned—he had between her daily calls with my mom been “taking care” of him. The next and the tiny tail-wagger in my arms. day he was arrested (“on an unrelated “You shouldn’t pay him a thing—the matter,” he assured me). He spent the guy kidnapped your dog!” night in jail and Trevi was sent to Ani- Half an hour later, my mom nearly mal Services, where he was admitted dropped to the floor when we arrived into protective custody rather than as at her condo with Trevi in tow. We a missing pet, since Matthew had told told her all about our epic quest and the cops that the dog belonged to him. she told us we were truly our father’s I was furious, but also elated—this daughters. We all pretended not to guy knew where my dog was. tear up.

94 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca MY DAD DIED ABOUT a year later. My phone rang several times on that Losing someone to a degenerative afternoon after we found him. I knew cognitive disease happens bit by bit. it was Matthew but wasn’t quite sure As a family we mourned him while he what to do. A part of me agreed with the was alive. When he went peacefully, woman at Animal Services—he kid- it was a gift and a relief. At the ceme- napped my dog!—but I also thought tery, Trevi ran around like a young pup. about “No questions asked.” I wanted But of course, he wasn’t. In the year those words to still mean something that followed, his health declined for anyone in the future who loses quickly: he lost interest in eating and something precious. had trouble holding his legs up to go When I met Matthew the next morn- to the bathroom. It wasn’t a difficult ing, we barely made eye contact as I decision to put him down; being in a handed over $100 in twenties. “You position to alleviate his discomfort was stole my dog,” I said. Not quite the ver- a privilege and a no-brainer. On his bal lashing I had imagined, but in the final morning, my mom drove him to moment, it was all I could manage. McDonald’s for a hamburger before I gave a part of the reward to Melissa, taking him to the vet. too. If I could do it over, I think I would I don’t relate the loss of my dad and have given her all of it. my dog to imply any sort of equivalency. I’m not sure how my dad would They aren’t equal, but they are inter- have handled the situation. I do know twined, which is a good word for the it was the type of conundrum he would way our pets become part of our lives. have loved to discuss. And of course, I They bear witness to all the moments— wish we could have. He was a natural the ones that make the movie montage with advice and, as his kids got older, and the many that do not. We tell the had enjoyed providing guidance for story of Trevi’s disappearance often— our adult problems. and I realize now that I haven’t quite That, and he absolutely loved a finished it. good caper.

HEY THERE

My sister was about to have a baby and my brother showed up to the hospital wearing a suit because “ﬁrst impressions matter.”

@IRIS_ELISABETH_

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 95 96 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca RD CLASSIC

Against all odds, my daughter found a way to remind me of the true meaning of the holidays Andrea’s

GiftBY ELIZABETH STARR HILL FROM READER’S DIGEST, DECEMBER 1966 READER’S DIGEST

now had fallen in the night. My husband, Russ, our daughter, son and I stood at the big window and looked out in pleased surprise. SSuddenly our town was dressed for the holidays. Houses wore peaked and furry hoods, and crystal coats encased the trees.

“Just one week from now, we’ll be I sighed. “We shouldn’t be just stand- on our way to the carol service,” Brad ing here; this is a busy day.” said. Almost 13, he embraced family traditions. This was a favourite one: AS I PREPARED breakfast, holiday the walk to church early on Christmas plans whirled through my mind. Only morning, meeting neighbours, rela- when the eggs and coffee were ready tives and friends along the way. did I realize that Andrea was still stand- “And we’ll have sausage cakes for ing by the window in her blue robe, breakfast,” Russ said. twisting a long strand of hair between “And tangerines,” Brad added. her fingers. “We have to put out suet for the She jumped a little, as though my birds,” Andrea said softly. “The snow is voice had recalled her from a dream. always hard on them.” “I was just wondering what to wear At 15, Andrea was a lovely, exasper- for the Christmas concert,” she said. ating blend of traits. She could be sen- “I can’t decide between my red wool sitively sweet one moment, wildly bois- and the green taffeta.” terous the next and stone-wall stubborn Andrea plays the flute in the school throughout. Careless as a hailstorm, orchestra. “Either dress should be she scattered shoes and books, as well fine,” I said, wishing she would eat so as bits of tenderness that were all the we could clear the table. more touching because they could not She sat and began to pick at her food. be predicted. My nerves tightened: I had to wrap “Yes, suet,” I agreed, making a men- packages, get to the post office. Masses tal note; one more thing to remember of silvery paper and bright ribbon

in days already crammed with errands. awaited me, tags saying “from” and “to.” (PREVIOUS PAGE) PAUL PENNA

98 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca When the last package was ready Of us all, only Andrea remained buoy- for mailing, I ran upstairs to get my ant. Unsurprising, I thought, since coat. Passing Andrea’s room, I stopped. responsibility rested so lightly on her. Although she was no paragon of neat- I was puzzled, though, by an odd ness, she hadn’t left her room in such remoteness about her, and she seemed a mess in a long time. Her bed was evasive when I questioned why she unmade, her bureau cluttered, her came home late from school or left closet door ajar. I glanced in, then unusually early in the morning. Once, turned away as I saw a few unwrapped I heard her whispering on the phone presents on the shelf. But even that and caught the words: “No, not an quick peek was enough to tell me that inkling. I’m sure of it.” only a fraction of her shopping had On one of those last mornings, I been accomplished. And where in the baked and decorated cookies. There world was she now? were several interruptions, and I I sent Brad to find her. In a minute slipped further behind schedule. I set she appeared, carrying her flute. about tidying the kitchen. I opened the “I was just practising in the garage,” dishwasher, but it was full already, and she said. She looked around her room not of clean dishes. Andrea had loaded vaguely. “Gosh, it needs straightening, the machine after breakfast and forgot- doesn’t it?” ten to start it. “That was my feeling,” I replied. Suddenly it all seemed too much: “And, if I may venture a guess, a few the dirty dishes, the too-tight sched- presents need to be bought.” ule, Andrea’s negligence. The holiday My child grinned. “Are you hinting season was overwhelming. It didn’t for a gift, Mom?” Teasing, she assured seem worth it. me, “You shall not be forgotten, never I rushed to do the dishes before fear. Night and day I am planning, plan- picking up my daughter at school to ning, brimming with yuletide spirit.” drive her to her flute lesson. I pulled up outside at 3 p.m., still annoyed. AS THE WEEK PROGRESSED, I felt Andrea’s long-haired figure detached increasingly harried. Ads tolled the itself from a group of friends, and she countdown: six more, five more, four ran toward me. I almost weakened at more shopping days. It was impossible the sight of the funny, half-skipping that I would ever get the last gift bought, run. She tumbled happily into the car, the last meal cooked. bubbling with some bit of high-school Russ’s sense of doom equalled mine. news. But as she saw my face, her gai- Even Brad began to look stressed as ety gave way to apprehension. he moved through myriad festivities. “What’s wrong?”

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 99 READER’S DIGEST

I told her: she couldn’t remember Eventually the music teacher anything; she was untidy, inconsider- announced the final selection: “Jesu, ate. “I don’t know what you’re think- Joy of Man’s Desiring.” He added, “For ing, you go dreaming along…” this last number we have a soloist. We had nearly reached the music Because she wanted it to be a surprise school before I ran out of things to say. for her family, her name is not listed on Beside me, Andrea sat perfectly quiet. the program.” Smiling, he looked down I didn’t look at her, but I could imagine into the orchestra pit: “Andrea Hill.” her fixed expression and wide eyes. My tears blurred her image as When I stopped the car, she got out Andrea rose and, to the applause of and walked wordlessly away. that auditorium, took her position on Then I felt ashamed. I was labouring the stage. Just before she raised the over every detail of the holiday, trying flute to her lips, she looked at her to make sure nothing was forgotten. father, brother and me, and gave us a Yet something was missing. wide smile. Did the music sound so beautiful THAT EVENING, we rushed through because our child’s instrument led it? our dinner. It was the night of the high- I don’t think so. All the fresh young school Christmas concert. Along with voices were beautiful. But loveliest of other families, Russ, Brad and I took all was the sense of wonder that filled our seats in the auditorium. I saw me. I remembered my daughter prac- Andrea, in her green dress, sit down at tising, out of hearing, in the garage; the her music stand in the pit. Up on stage, extra time spent at school; the details the chorus formed in a double line. ignored, the little things undone— As the concert started, my tension while she did this big thing. Instinct- began to drain away. I listened, ively, Andrea had grasped a truth that relaxed and moved by the special had eluded me: that dutifulness is less atmosphere that these young people important than love. created. Old and new songs about snow With her love, she had presented me and reindeer alternated with reverent with the music and the meaning of the Christmas music. holidays. That was Andrea’s gift.

BACK-DATED

I’m print-out-articles-to-read-them years old.

TOM POWER, radio host

100 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca @ Work

“I had to scratch and claw to get to where I am today.”

NAP TIME SORRY MY ARMPITS are so sweaty; I just want to be as tired at bedtime I had to say my name and title on a as I am all day at work. conference call. @STAP_JR @ENVYDATROPIC ANYONE THERE? I WORK IN A COFFEE SHOP, and by Ninety-five per cent of my workday the end of my shift, I’m sometimes is emailing people to see if they got tripping over my words. Recently, my email. when a customer thanked me, I tried @THECATWHISPRER to reply with “No problem” at the same time as “That’s yours.” Instead, UNFORTUNATE TYPO I dropped a quarter into her hand I just typed to a work contact saying and said, “That’s your problem.” “I know you are very busty.” I meant DIREN NAIDOO, Burlington, Ont. to say “busy.” Not sure how I’ll ever recover from that one. INTERVIEWER: Why should we @SVROSS2 hire you? Are you in need of some professional ME: I once pronounced “Worcester- motivation? Send us a work anecdote, shire” correctly. and you could receive $50. To submit

CONAN DE VRIES DE CONAN @DAFLOYDSTA your stories, visit rd.ca/joke.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 101 HUMOUR

Comedian Mark Critch reflects back on the kindergarten play that set the stage for his A entire career Star Is

BornFROM SON OF A CRITCH ILLUSTRATION BY KAGAN McLEOD

102 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca

READER’S DIGEST

oday we’ll be picking time to change my costume between parts for our school verses. Unless! I could wear multiple “ play,” my kindergarten layers, quickly shedding each one to teacher, Mrs. Fowler, reveal a new colour underneath. Yes! began one afternoon in It would be spellbinding. spring 1980. “Each of you will play a colour, and What’s that? A play? This was my when your colour is mentioned you’ll Tchance, my way out of St. John’s. I would jump up, turn around and then sit gain fame as a child star. All I needed back down,” our director said, sharing was a breakout role. What would this her nearsighted vision. Disappointing. be? Comedy? A drama? “I will also need someone to give a “We’ll be playing the colours.” short speech at the start of the assem- Colours? What kind of lines would bly. Would anyone like to do that?” colours have? Colours can’t speak. Now we were talking. I shot up my “There’ll be a song for you to dance hand. “Only two volunteers?” she to,” she continued. said. Two? A musical number, eh? Well, it’d I turned to see a freckled boy with been a while, but I could give them the his arm half-raised. Billy Samson. His what-for with the old soft shoe. mother was a teacher at our school. I Mrs. Fowler took out a record and had the feeling she’d been tipped off placed it on the phonograph. The and had forced her son to volunteer so sound of the needle finding its groove she could gain the glory. But I needed filled me with excitement. Each revo- this role and would do anything to get lution felt as long as an orbit around it. See you in hell, Billy. the sun. Finally, the music began. “Why don’t you each say the lines and the class will choose the person to If you are wearing red welcome the parents and guests on If you are wearing red their behalf?” Stand up tall and turn around Mrs. Fowler picked up a sheet. And then sit right back down! “You’ll have to recite this from memory, Mark. You think you can do that?” The accompaniment was simply “Yes, miss.” juvenile. And the lyrics! There was no Mrs. Fowler read the passage without story, no drama. The singer repeated giving it any life. She said the words but herself over and over, the only change she didn’t believe them, and as a con- being the substitution of a new colour sequence, they held no truth. When she in each verse. How would this number was finished, Mrs. Fowler handed me be choreographed? There simply wasn’t the sheet, and I prepared to read.

104 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca “Archbishop,” I began, as if addressing had never even seen live theatre before. the great man himself. This was God’s No matter. I’d given it my all and, representative, and I tipped my head exhausted, retired to my dressing room, reverently in his imagined direction. I’m which also happened to be my desk. sure that many students turned around Billy was next. He’d lost the critical to see if the archbishop had secretly element of surprise—he had to win over been in the room the whole time. 30 bored five-year-olds with a revival of “Bishop,” I continued, giving the man a show they’d already seen twice. He his lesser due but somehow not taking was a nostalgia act at best. He zoomed anything away from his superiority. through the text with a machine-gun “Fathers, brothers, sisters...” These delivery. But the lightning pace pleased I grouped together. They weren’t out- his audience, who were anxiously siders. They were our clerical family, waiting to get back to colouring. He got

I WAS ASSIGNED TO PLAY YELLOW THE COLOUR OF THE SUN AND MACARONIGIVERS OF LIFE. and the familiarity showed that, though a much bigger round of applause. I felt respected, they weren’t feared. my career slipping away. “Teachers,” I said, swiftly snapping “Good job, boys,” Mrs. Fowler said, them out of their reverie. “Parents, lying to half of us. “You made my job friends...” This was a nice touch by the tough. Luckily, there’ll be two shows: author. It acknowledged the common one of you can do it for the students in man, the everyday Joe. the assembly and the other at night.” The next word was an enigma: But wouldn’t the daytime speech be “pupils.” Perhaps this was some form a much shorter “Welcome, students of medication for a small dog? I confi- and teachers”? What good would that dently skipped it, rather than risk look- do for my career? I needed to be seen. ing like an amateur. “Welcome.” I then outstretched my arms, the universal LATER THAT DAY, rehearsals began, sign of welcome. and we were each assigned a colour. The class offered a spattering of I got yellow—the colour of the sun, applause. Philistines. Many of them macaroni and margarine—the givers

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 105 READER’S DIGEST of life. I went home with a renewed into the kitchen. “Try this on,” she said, sense of purpose. I was an actor. passing me a horribly deformed mound I started to see yellow everywhere. of bright yellow fabric sewn together. It Mustard was yellow. Pencils were yel- looked like an infinity scarf that Big Bird low. Even my old enemy the school bus might knit. I couldn’t find a way into it. was that lovely golden hue. “There are only two holes,” I com- I needed stage time, so I improvised plained, loudly. by climbing onto the kitchen counter “That’s plenty—one for you and one and standing in the sink, forcing my for your feet,” my mother said. After parents to watch. I asked Dad what a examining her handiwork, she admit- pupil was and he explained that it was ted she’d sewn the waist and two arms a student. Here was another example of a dress together in a way that some- of the poor writing that had plagued how gave you two legs but one foot

SUDDENLY I GOT A BIG LAUGH. FOR A MOMENT, I LOST MY TRAIN OF THOUGHT. WHAT WAS SO FUNNY? my acting career. How are you wel- hole. She lifted her scissors and told coming pupils when they don’t even me not to move. know whom you’re speaking to? “There,” she said, with a snip, creat- The parents were expected to pro- ing two separate leg warmers and a yel- vide the costume for this Crayola box low knee-length skirt. The aerobics fad come to life. We were to wear white of the ’80s was still a few years off, so shirts, a sash in the assigned colour Mom hustled me to bed, promising to and matching pants. The shirt, at least, fix it while I was at school the next day. was easy. We scoured the mall for yel- What she didn’t know was that low pants but had no luck at Sears or there’d be no school in the morning. Woolco. To this day I’ve never seen a If I was sick on the day of the assem- pair of boys’ yellow pants for sale. bly, then Billy would have to step in So Mom, a notoriously uncrafty per- for that show. I’d stage a miraculous son, took scissors to a yellow dress of recovery after school and take the hers. She worked well into the night. I prime-time slot. It was real Joan was headed to bed when she called me Crawford and Bette Davis stuff.

106 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca The next morning, I did my best “Pupils,” I repeated. This time the typhoid impression. Mom, relieved laugh was even bigger. I said it again, that she wouldn’t have to finish the leaning into it with a devilish look on costume, relented. By lunchtime I said my face. I’d realized what was going on. I thought I was well enough to take the The remnants of baby talk in my voice stage that night. She reacted the way a mixed with my unfamiliarity with the can of Pepsi does when you shake it word were making “pupils” come out up. “My God, Mark. Where are we as “poo-pills,” to the delight of the going to find a costume at this hour?!” adults. I was getting my first laugh. Mom called the mother of another “Poo-pills,” I said again, covering my yellow who, thankfully, had enough mouth as if I was saying something material left to whip up a second cos- dirty. The crowd erupted. Even the tume. She’d meet us in the school archbishop chuckled. It was intoxicat- parking lot that night. ing. “Poo-pills!” I said a fifth time, but the joke was wearing thin and Mrs. LATER THAT EVENING, the muffled roar Fowler was waving me offstage. of the audience on the other side of the “Welcome!” I finished with a bow curtain sounded like a 747 revving up. and then walked offstage, basking in “Are you ready, Mark?” my teacher the last waves of applause. As the asked. I nodded, and walked onstage. music started, I grabbed my pompoms The spotlight hit me as I approached and took my place with the other kids. the microphone. I could see the sil- I became the colour yellow. I stood houette of the archbishop’s pointed up. I sat back down. But I was only hat standing high above the other going through the motions, still absorb- adults’ heads. ing what had just happened. Showtime! I’d made the audience do something. “Archbishop,” I began, straight to the No. I’d made them feel something. We pointy hat. “Bishop,” I continued, to a finished our performance and there it shorty hat that I assumed to be the was again, that beautiful sound. But Robin to the archbishop’s Batman. they were choosing to clap. They’d had “Fathers, brothers, sisters,” I delivered no choice when they laughed, and that right to the mixed bag of clergy in the seemed more authentic. front row. “Parents, teachers, friends, I now knew who I was. I knew what pupils—” Suddenly I got a big laugh. I I wanted to be when I grew up. In momentarily lost my train of thought. some ways, I’ve been chasing that What was so funny? high ever since.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 107 SOCIETY

Crossing SINCE 2017, THOUSANDS OF Over at ASYLUM SEEKERS HAVE ENTERED CANADA BY WALKING Roxham ACROSS THE BORDER IN RURAL QUEBEC. Road HERE ARE THE STORIES OF TWO BY HEATHER ROBB FROM MAISONNEUVE SUCH FAMILIES.

108 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Quebec processes half of the asylum claims in Canada. READER’S DIGEST

deesewa Ogunlesi* floor the first two nights, layering their and her husband, clothes to keep warm. Olajuwan*, were tired Just before leaving the shelter, the but excited when their Ogunlesis had received their first wel- taxi pulled up in front fare cheque, for $950. Rent was $650 of a four-storey walk- per month and they needed a cell- up in suburban Montreal on Decem- phone and access to the Internet, since Aber 21, 2017. After spending their first Olajuwan planned to look for work. So two and a half weeks in Canada at their budget for home furnishings and a YMCA shelter downtown, the one- food—not to mention supplies for the bedroom apartment would be their baby, who was due January 11—was first real home in this new country. extremely limited. The Ogunlesis—Adeesewa, 33 years On the third night, their landlord old and 37 weeks pregnant, and Ola- gave them a worn-out mattress and, juwan, 34—were two of 20,000 asylum later in the week, lent them a sofa and seekers who’d entered Canada “irregu- a fridge. They registered at a neigh- larly” at Roxham Road last year—they bourhood food bank and bought walked across an unmanned stretch of kitchen items and cleaning products border, only declaring their presence from a dollar store. Though the Ogun- when they were already inside the lesis are Christian, their first Christ- country. Aside from the winter coats mas in their new home was a subdued and boots they were wearing, which affair: they shared two plates of fried they’d been given at the shelter, the chicken and rice and gazed out their couple owned nothing but two suit- window at their first snowstorm. cases filled with clothing, toiletry A week or so later, a neighbour told items and essential documents they’d Adeesewa about a Facebook group brought from the United States. called YMCA Refugee Claimant Dona- They soon discovered that the land- tions. Adeesewa requested membership lord hadn’t cleaned the apartment to the closed group, which had about after the previous tenant’s departure. 2,300 members at the time, and wrote A few odds and ends had been left a post seeking a crib, cooking utensils, behind, but there was no fridge and baby clothes, a stroller and a bed. nothing covering the windows. The While many of the stories focusing Ogunlesis had none of the basics that on families like the Ogunlesis end at make a house livable. They lay on the the border, reaching Canada is, in some senses, just the beginning of their tri- * Names have been changed to als. Once here, refugee claimants must

protect privacy. completely rebuild their lives. IMAGES PRESS IMAGES/CANADIAN KRUPA/AP CHARLES SPREAD) (PREVIOUS

110 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca IN 2017, AMERICAN president Donald border. From 2016 to 2017, the number Trump began a crackdown on migrants of asylum claims in Canada doubled, to the U.S., starting with the first of from about 25,000 to 50,000, and Que- three temporary travel bans, which bec’s share of those claims skyrock- would be deemed unconstitutional in eted from about a quarter to half of February 2018, only to be upheld in the country’s total. (Those numbers June. The day after Trump signed the remained similar into 2018, with Que- executive order for the ban, Prime Min- bec processing over 18,000 of Canada’s ister Justin Trudeau tweeted a mes- 35,365 asylum claims by October.) sage to “those fleeing persecution, Most of the claims made in Quebec terror [and] war: Canadians will wel- came from irregular crossings at Rox- come you, regardless of your faith.” ham Road, a stretch of gravel road located near Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle. While the Canada–United States Safe Third Country Agreement stipulates THE OGUNLESIS that individuals must only seek asy- FLED NIGERIA IN lum from the first of the two countries NOVEMBER 2017 AFTER they arrive in, people can seek asylum HAVING THEIR HOUSE when they enter the country irregu- SET ON FIRE BY A larly, between official entry points. REBEL MILITIA GROUP. Haitians, who have cultural and lin- guistic ties to Quebec and whose TPS status in the U.S. was being threatened, made up the largest group of asylum The Trump administration also dis- seekers who crossed at Roxham Road cussed stopping renewal of the Tempo- in 2017. Nigerian asylum seekers made rary Protected Status Program (TPS) for up the second-largest group. some of the groups who had previously Nigerians have never had TPS in the been granted it, including Haitians, U.S. and they have different reasons Nicaraguans, Hondurans and Salvador- for coming to Canada; push factors for ans. Created in 1990, TPS allows peo- fleeing Nigeria—a country of 190 mil- ple from countries suffering from natu- lion referred to as the “Giant of Africa”— ral disasters or civil conflicts to live and include organized crime, religious per- work in the U.S. for a period of time. secution, tribalism and female genital Trump’s threats to TPS created an mutilation. People leaving the Middle atmosphere of uncertainty, contribut- East and Africa say it’s easier to get ing to a significant increase in asylum American visas than Canadian visas; seekers arriving at the U.S.–Canada this means many Nigerians plan to

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 111 READER’S DIGEST land first in the U.S. before making money they had on them—a total of their way to Canada. $1—as well as their luggage. They were For their part, the Ogunlesis had taken to a detention centre, where been living in Houston, Texas, prior to they were held for 10 hours. making their walk down Roxham Road. Once they had passed the security They’d fled Nigeria in February 2017, and health tests and the police deter- fearing for their lives after having their mined they were eligible to open a house set on fire by a rebel militia refugee claim, they were taken to a sta- group Olajuwan had joined, then left, tion set up by the Red Cross, where they when he was young. were served breakfast while waiting The Ogunlesis had started out in for the next bus to Montreal. From Houston with six-month tourist visas, there, the couple headed to the down- but these expired in August. They had town YMCA, one of three shelters in the heard it was next to impossible to get city then set up for refugee claimants. approved for asylum in the U.S., but Though the flow of people across stories of migrants walking north into Roxham Road quieted down some- what over the colder months from the peak of around 250 per day in August 2017, the stream was still steady. In AFTER ONE WOMAN January and February of 2018, roughly WROTE ABOUT WANTING 50 people were placed in temporary TO LEARN TO KNIT shelters in the Montreal area every day. CLOTHES FOR HER BABY, (In April, Quebec immigration min- A LOCAL STARTED UP ister David Heurtel announced that A KNITTING CIRCLE. Montreal’s temporary shelters were at 70 per cent capacity and that they would no longer place people coming from irregular crossings like Roxham Canada near Plattsburgh, N.Y., were Road once they reached 85 per cent.) making international headlines. As Once sheltered, asylum seekers must Adeesewa’s due date approached, they complete the application for refugee decided to make the move. status. Due to backlogs, they will likely After crossing the border, the Ogun- wait about a year before their refugee lesis were arrested by the RCMP; at hearing takes place. The Ogunlesis this time, like other migrants before were given an initial hearing date in them, they declared their wish to July 2018 but were later told it had claim asylum. The police temporarily been postponed indefinitely due to retained their passports and the little the backlog.

112 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca A view of Roxham Road in March 2017.

IN 2017, VOLUNTEERS and social work- Tanatswa Mutoro*, a 36-year-old ers at the YMCA temporary shelter woman originally from Zimbabwe, founded the Facebook group YMCA heard about the group while staying Refugee Claimant Donations, the one at the YMCA shelter in November Adeesewa discovered a few weeks after 2017 with her Nigerian husband, arriving in Canada. Over the past year, Olamide Eze*, 35, and their two chil- the group—now known as Refugee dren. Like Ogunlesi, she put out a call Claimant Donations Montreal—has for help when it was time to set up her grown to over 6,000 members. family’s apartment. Olivia Viveros, a The group wasn’t just a depot for 44-year-old library clerk and mother those seeking and those looking to to an 11-year-old boy, responded. donate—a community seemed to be Viveros originally went onto the flourishing. Every day, posters shared YMCA Refugee Claimant Donations elaborate thank yous, naming the peo- page in September 2017 to donate ple who’d given them goods. After one kids’ clothing. Over the course of the woman wrote about how she wanted fall, she found herself becoming very to learn to knit clothes for her baby, a involved in the group. “Every time I Montrealer started up a knitting circle met a new family, I wanted to help

GRAHAM HUGHES/CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES PRESS HUGHES/CANADIAN GRAHAM for newcomers. them out,” Viveros says. “I’d arrive with

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 113 READER’S DIGEST a snowsuit for one child and realize services for asylum seekers,” says Flor- there were three others in the family ence Bourdeau, the project manager who needed snowsuits, too. So I would of the Quebec Coalition of Services for look for three more.” Refugees and Immigrants, a group of When Viveros ran out of stuff, she more than 140 organizations that work began turning to her family and friends to protect the rights of immigrants, for donations. Then she began posting refugees and claimants in Quebec. on Bazar de Villeray, a community Bourdeau says that the problem of buy-and-sell Facebook group with underfunding existed long before the 17,792 members. She compiled lists of 2017 increase but worsened when the the things needed by newcomer fam- numbers rose. Unlike elsewhere in ilies and matched it against her cata- logue of promised donations. Soon she was spending weekends and even- ings picking up and delivering dona- THROUGH WORD OF tions all over the city. For larger items, MOUTH AND SOCIAL she eventually started a GoFundMe MEDIA, THE REFUGEE page to raise money to hire movers. CLAIMANT DONATIONS Over the course of Mutoro and Eze’s MONTREAL GROUP first few weeks in their apartment, CONTINUES TO GROW. Viveros provided them with winter clothing, a kitchen table and chairs, a sofa and kitchen utensils. Later on, she brought things like a hair dryer, work Canada, Quebec is responsible for the boots for Eze and toys for the kids. resettlement of refugees in the province; federal funding is distributed via IN FEBRUARY OF 2017, the City of Mon- Quebec’s immigration ministry. Bour- treal declared itself a “sanctuary city”— deau thinks that both the provincial meaning a space where undocumented and federal governments need to step migrants don’t have to fear deporta- up their game when it comes to tion if they seek out assistance, but addressing asylum seekers’ needs. also, perhaps just as importantly, sig- Echoing the Ogunlesis’ experience, nalling a commitment to ensuring Bourdeau says that the initial welfare essential services to refugees of all cheque they receive isn’t enough to set different statuses. up a new life. She also has concerns While this was a positive move, many about what kind of housing is avail- critics feel that the city still has a long able, and she thinks there’s a gap in way to go. “There is a significant lack of services when it comes to health care.

114 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Although refugee claimants have FOR MONTHS AFTER their arrival, basic health coverage under the Interim Mutoro’s family, like Adeesewa’s, was Federal Health Program, accessing it doing its best to put down roots. Her can be very hard. Many clinics and eldest boy entered kindergarten. Eze, some hospitals are unaware of the pro- like Adeesewa’s husband, secured a gram or are reluctant to fill out the job—in his case, he was working in the paperwork needed to be reimbursed cold room of a dairy. The hours were for the care. long, as he had no official shift: he “As far as we know, there are a hand- arrived in the morning and was often ful of clinics in the Montreal area that expected to stay until 11 or 12 at night. openly accept refugee claimants,” Bour- Eventually, the family made the deau says. “It’s not nearly sufficient to decision to try their luck in Toronto, cover the number of refugee claimants moving there in June. Mutoro and we have. There are people with serious Viveros are still in regular contact—in health-care needs. And for those with fact, they’re friends, and their families mental-health issues, it is even more spent time together in Toronto during challenging to access services.” the summer. “She’s my best girl,” says The final major hurdle for asylum Mutoro. “When my son sees her, he seekers, according to Bourdeau, is runs into her arms like she’s family.” obtaining a work permit. Though there Through word of mouth and social are a few organizations that can help media, the Refugee Claimant Dona- with a work-permit application— tions Montreal group continues to both non-profits and government grow. Thanks to its volunteers, the offices—no organizations receive any Ogunlesis’ home has been furnished, special funding for this service. their baby daughter, Aria*, is dressed Moreover, Bourdeau says, there’s and the couple are sleeping in a very little funding devoted to helping proper bed. Adeesewa has people she asylum seekers find employment. can call if she needs something. The “There are a few who will help refugee first winter wasn’t easy and she and claimants,” she says, “but it is mostly her husband would like to find a new on a volunteer basis.” Though Olaju- apartment, but she’s nevertheless wan managed to receive a work permit feeling optimistic. “People have been and find a job—he works the night shift so good to me here—why would I at an aluminum-roofing factory, where want to go anywhere else?” she asks. he can pick up overtime if he likes— “I can see a future here for myself and not everyone is so lucky. my family.”

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 115

HEALTH

How to Get the

MostOut of

TherapyBY LISAN JUTRAS ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY PRESS

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 117 READER’S DIGEST

IN 2013, SUSAN* and her husband Scott take the plunge. The question is: were at a remote cottage near Victoria where do you begin? Beach, Manitoba, when the unthink- able happened: Susan’s daughter Finding a Therapist entered the bedroom to find Scott lying When seeking mental health support, on the ground, unconscious after suf- some people may get a referral to a fering a massive heart attack. While her therapist from their physician. The daughter called 911, Susan leapt into bereaved may consult hospices and action. “I tried to save him with CPR,” grief support organizations. And many she says, but it was no use. By the time people may simply ask around and the first responders arrived, he was find a professional by word-of-mouth. already dead. If none of those options are available, The shock of sudden widowhood at Google will certainly provide names the age of 61 was hard enough, but and directories in your area. But no Susan’s grief was complicated by her matter how you find a therapist, a little feeling that if she had just done some- research before committing to a con- thing a little bit different—performed sultation can save a lot of time. CPR better, or not asked Scott to lift The first thing potential clients some heavy stones earlier that day—he should do, says Pat Rayman, a Toronto- might still be alive. “I couldn’t get out based registered psychotherapist, is of the trauma,” she says. “I was stuck.” check for credentials. In provinces Finally, a year later, her family doc- where psychotherapy is regulated— tor referred her to a therapist who spe- Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New cialized in grief, a relationship that Brunswick—the therapist should be helped her begin healing. registered. For therapists in other prov- For many people—not just those inces, Rayman suggests making sure suffering a loss—psychotherapy can they are at least part of an association, be a safe harbour during a difficult such as the Canadian Association of time, or an invaluable part of treating Psychodynamic Therapy. an ongoing mental health problem. After that, it’s useful to look into the And as the stigma once associated therapist’s area of expertise, which with seeing a “shrink” is fading in this many advertise on their websites. era of self-care and wellness, people Finding someone who can help you who never considered therapy before with your particular issue—whether it in order to address problems old or be related to death and bereavement, new may be curious enough now to trauma and PTSD, aging, family conflicts, sexual identity or addiction—is *Last name withheld for privacy. also a good beginning.

118 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Therapists use a variety of tech- and also discuss things such as fre- niques based on a number of different quency of appointments, fees and can- theories. Psychoanalysis, sometimes cellation policies. But most importantly, called “the talking cure,” was pio- this first consultation—which is not a neered by Sigmund Freud in the 19th commitment—is a chance for both of century, and even now most therapists you to gauge compatibility. still encourage clients to speak expan- As renowned therapist Irvin Yalom sively about what’s on their mind. How- once said, “It’s the relationship that ever, some clients may prefer a more heals.” Indeed, studies have shown short-term treatment focused less on that across all types of therapy a good excavating the past and more on chang- rapport between client and therapist ing harmful thoughts and self-talk; cog- is essential for effective treatment. nitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a popular option along these lines. Dr. Jo Hoffman, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of It’s important to pay British Columbia and a psychoanalyst, attention to, and share, suggests keeping in mind the kinds of feelings you have during resources—financial, emotional and sessions—including those time—you have available. “If you’re going to do the deep-dive type of work, about the therapist. you need to have stability in your regular, everyday life,” she says. Someone in immediate danger—for instance, an To suss out whether it’s a good abusive relationship—may instead match, Hoffman suggests being as require targeted crisis support in the forthcoming as you can be about your short term. Whatever your situation, try life and problems. “But also, be open to be realistic about how often you can and honest with yourself about how meet and what you can afford. you feel about the therapist,” she says. Dr. Ingrid Söchting, clinical associate First Impressions professor in the department of psychia- During the initial appointment, the try at the University of British Columbia therapist will be looking to get a sense and a CBT therapist, says she encour- of what brings you in, and you should ages people to shop around. “Some learn how they work, asking questions clients find it off-putting if a therapist is about any aspect of therapy you don’t too ‘touchy feely’ and overly expressive, understand. The two of you may have so they may prefer—at least initially— a conversation about treatment goals, more distance and personal space,”

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 119 READER’S DIGEST she says. “On the other hand, some But no matter what type of therapy therapists display a surprising lack of you’re doing, you can aid the process warmth and empathy.” by paying attention to, and sharing, Söchting suggests giving it two to feelings that you’re having during the three sessions, and if you have a lot of sessions themselves—including those negative feelings, then just say “thank about the therapist. you” and move on. “The more the client can be open— if they are bothered by something the Useful Homework and therapist does and can tell them—it Building Rapport will work to their benefit,” says Ray- After several sessions with your new man. A quiet therapist may have no therapist, you’ll find yourself observ- idea that their client wants more ver- ing your feelings and behaviour in a bal input, or a client may need to new light. For some clients, simply make it known they’re being pushed showing up week after week will be too hard to reveal vulnerable feelings. enough to spark a healing process, but For someone who isn’t used to there are ways to deepen the work. being assertive, challenging a ther- Rayman suggests it can be useful apist may feel out of their comfort to keep a journal. Mostly, she says, zone—which is exactly the point. The “you’re training yourself to be aware of therapy office is a useful place to test what you’re feeling and what’s hap- out new ways of being in a relation- pening for you by writing it down.” The ship, which can carry over into the journal can also be good for describing world outside. dreams, since anxieties blocked from our conscious minds during the day Red Flags can bubble up at night—and are good Even if a psychotherapist does not discussion starters in therapy. practice in a province where the pro- Behavioural therapists may give cli- fession is regulated, they should be a ents worksheets to fill out, which help member of an association with a clear reframe obsessive, depressive or anx- code of ethics. These groups’ rules ious thoughts. They might be asked to typically prohibit blatant boundary record outcomes of exercises meant violations such as sexual relation- to challenge fears, or to keep track of ships or unrelated business dealings how their behaviours are linked to their between therapists and their clients. moods. A binge eater, for instance, Some bad practices, however, are may record what they eat, and note subtler. For example, since a therapist their feelings and thoughts before can be a strong, influential presence and after. in a client’s life, it’s important that the

120 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca client’s well-being and agency are prioritized. Rayman suggests being A THERAPIST, aware of that power dynamic: “Whose agenda is being followed—the client’s BUT WHAT KIND? or the therapist’s?” For instance, she says the therapist should not be decid- ■ A PSYCHOTHERAPIST is trained ing the topics of conversation for the in treating emotional or behavioural session or pressuring the client to have disturbances through dialogue, but cannot prescribe medication. Psycho- particular emotional reactions. therapy practitioners may also be Where the treatment period is open- psychiatrists, psychologists or ended, Söchting suggests therapist and social workers. client should evaluate together how ■ A PSYCHOANALYST typically sees things are going at the three-month clients multiple times a week. They mark. If no progress has occurred, the undergo similar training as a psycho- effectiveness of the relationship should therapist does, but usually at the post- be reconsidered. doctoral level. At any point, switching therapists ■ A PSYCHIATRIST is a medical is an option. A successful therapy doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating mental illnesses, and relationship can continue as long as may do talk therapy if they choose to. the client wishes—some people may They can prescribe medication such decide to see the same therapist for as anti-depressants or anti-psychotics, many years, while others may decide and are covered by provincial and after a while to try someone with dif- territorial health plans. ferent strengths. ■ A PSYCHOLOGIST can diagnose and treat mental health problems, but cannot prescribe medication. IN THERAPY, Susan found herself able Their fees, which tend to be higher to talk about things she had never told than those of psychotherapists, a soul before—not just about the are more likely to be covered, in part, trauma of her husband’s death, but by private insurance plans. events from her more distant past. ■ A SOCIAL WORKER is typically Having suffered from depression on employed by family services, children’s and off her whole adult life, she credits aid, welfare administration, or by an her new-found emotional resilience institution such as a hospital, school board or correctional facility. Their to the therapeutic work she did. focus is helping people navigate social “When you get the strength to talk services and policies, but an increasing about deep-seated issues, that’s a huge number also work in private practice thing,” she says. “Therapy was really as therapists. very healing for me.”

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 121 FAMILY

When a practical joke becomes a message of hope passed down through generations Coming Up

WatermelonBY CONRAD KIECHEL FROM READER’S DIGEST, MARCH 1994 s ILLUSTRATION BY OLIVIA MEW

IN 1990, WE HAD just moved to Paris Claire pointed to a page with line from New York, and my wife, Nancy, drawings below the bars of an old and I were unpacking on a quiet August French children’s song: “Do You Know afternoon, busy making the apartment How to Plant Cabbages?” In blue ink, into a home for our uprooted family. At someone had crossed out “cabbages” our feet, our three-year-old, Claire, sat and written “watermelons!” leafing through books. “Daddy! Did you do that?” Claire “Please read me this,” she said, asked, looking up with an expression thrusting a thin blue book in my direc- of shock. We had only recently con- tion. It’s Fun to Speak French was sten- vinced her not to write in books, and cilled on the spine of the faded cover. suddenly here was proof that her My grandfather, who had grown up parents hadn’t practised what they speaking French, had given me the preached. I told her that my grand- book when I was a child, and my par- father had written in the book. ents had unearthed it from somewhere “Daddy!” Now she was confused. and sent it along with us. “Why did your grandfather do that?”

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READER’S DIGEST

As I sat down to tell the story, my office, entertained along the way by thoughts travelled a well-worn road the incessant patter of his nonsense back to Nebraska. rhymes: “Hello, Mrs. Brown. Why are you going to town?” “ARE WE ALMOST THERE?” my sister, Vicky, demanded from the back seat of our family’s ’54 Ford station wagon. It was the last day of our annual drive INSTEAD OF BORING west to our grandparents’ house, which ME WITH THE HOW was perched above a creek bed in OF GROWING THINGS, Tecumseh, Nebraska. MY GRANDAD For a few weeks each summer, MADE SURE I FIRST Vicky and I had all the adventure we EXPERIENCED THE WOW. needed—working the old pump to see what kind of bugs came up in the water, choreographing fireworks displays in Best of all were trips to “the 80,” the the back lot, escaping the midday sun 80 acres of farmland my grandfather under a canvas tarp thrown over two had managed to keep; the rest had clotheslines. When we pulled into their been sold, or repossessed, to pay the driveway, my grandmother burst from bills in his years of recovery. Vicky and the back door to greet us. Behind her, I would climb into the barn’s hayloft Grandad hobbled across the lawn, then and, from an old cow stall below, gathered us in his arms. Grandad made mooing noises that As a young man, my grandfather sent us into fits of laughter. Walther Henri Kiechel had been a farmer, school superintendent, stock- “I’M GOING TO BE a farmer, too,” I man and, at age 26, a state senator. The announced proudly one afternoon as trajectory of his life was straight up— my grandfather sat playing solitaire at until a massive stroke felled him at his desk. age 44 and disabled him. Sometime Laying card upon card, he asked, between his stroke and my boyhood, “What are you going to grow?” he had made peace with his situation. I thought of a favourite pastime— His scrape with death had convinced spitting watermelon seeds as far as him not how awful life is, but how pre- possible. “How about watermelons?” cious. His general enthusiasm made I asked. him a playmate Vicky and I fought over. “Hmm, there’s a crop I haven’t tried Each morning we piled into Gran- yet!” He put his cards aside. “Better get dad’s car for the drive to the post your seeds in the ground quick, though.”

124 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca It was mid-August, and the days “Maybe next month,” he said, laugh- were growing shorter. Soon we would ing. “Maybe sooner.” pack up for the drive back to Vir- The next morning I lay lazily in ginia—and school. I felt the first chill bed, reading a comic book. Suddenly, of autumn separation. I remembered: the seeds! Dressing “Let’s do it now!” I said, leaping out quickly, I ran outside. of my seat. “What do we do?” What’s that? I wondered, peering First, my grandfather said, we under the oak. Then I realized—it’s a needed seeds. Remembering the piece watermelon! A huge, perfectly shaped of watermelon I’d seen in the refriger- fruit lay nesting in the cool mud. I felt ator, I raced to the kitchen, returning triumphant. Wow! I’m a farmer! It was with five black seeds in my hand. the biggest melon I’d seen, and I’d Grandad suggested a sunny spot in grown it. back of the house to plant the seeds, Just as I began to figure I hadn’t, but I wanted a place where I could eas- really, Grandad came out of the house. ily watch my plants’ progress skyward. “You picked a great spot, Conrad,” We walked outside, into the shade he chuckled. of a huge oak. “Right here, Grandad,” I “Oh, Grandad!” I said. Then we said. I could sit with my back against quickly conspired to play the joke on the tree, reading comic books as the others. After breakfast, we loaded the watermelons grew. It was perfect. melon into his trunk and took it to “Go to the garage and get the hoe,” town, where he showed his cronies the he said, then showed me how to pre- “midnight miracle” his grandson had pare the ground and plant the seeds in grown—and they let me believe they a semicircle. “Don’t crowd them,” he believed it. added quietly. “Give them plenty of room to grow.” LATER THAT MONTH, Vicky and I got “Now what, Grandad?” into the back seat of the station wagon “Now comes the hard part,” he said. for the glum return trip. Grandad “You wait.” And for a whole afternoon, passed a book through the window. I did. “For school,” he said seriously. Hours Nearly every hour I checked on my later, I opened it to where he’d written watermelons, each time watering the “watermelons”—and laughed at seeds again. Incredibly, they had still Grandad’s joke. not sprouted by suppertime, although Holding the book my grandfather my plot was a muddy mess. At the din- had given me that day long ago, Claire ner table, I asked Grandad how long it listened quietly to the story. Then she would take. asked, “Daddy, can I plant seeds, too?”

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Nancy looked at me; together we sur- my grandfather had taken. He had sto- veyed the mountain of boxes waiting to len back into town that August after- be unpacked. About to say “We’ll do it noon and bought the biggest melon in tomorrow,” I realized I had never heard the market. That night, after I was Grandad say that. We set out for the asleep, he had unloaded it and placed market. At a small shop with a metal it exactly above my seeds. rack filled with seed packs, Claire picked “Done, Daddy,” Claire broke into my one that promised bright red flowers, reverie. I opened the window over the and I added a sack of potting soil. sink and she put her pot on the sill, On the walk home, while Claire moving it from side to side until she munched a buttery croissant, I thought found the perfect spot, “Now grow!” about those seeds I’d planted. For the she commanded. first time I realized that Grandad could A few days later, shouts of “They’re have met my childish enthusiasm with growing!” woke us, and Claire led us to a litany of disappointing facts: that the kitchen to see a pot of small green watermelons don’t grow well in shoots, “Mommy,” she said proudly, Nebraska; that it was too late to plant “I’m a farmer!” them anyway; that it was pointless to I had always thought the midnight try growing them in the deep shade. miracle was just another of Gran- But instead of boring me with the how dad’s pranks. Now I realized it was of growing things, which I would soon one of his many gifts to me. He had forget, he made sure I first experienced planted something that neither time the wow. nor distance could uproot: a full- Claire charged up the three flights of throttle grasping at the happiness life stairs to our apartment, and in a few offers—and a disdain for whatever minutes she was standing on a chair at bumps get in the way. the kitchen sink, filling a white porcel- As Claire beamed with satisfaction, ain pot with soil. I watched my grandfather’s joy take As I sprinkled seeds into her open fresh root in her life. And that was the palm, I felt for the first time the pains biggest miracle of all.

HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE

I used to have my tarot read all the time. But now I’m like, go on Universe, surprise me.

HEATHER O’NEILL, author

126 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Celebrate Canada from Coast to Coast!

People, places and a touch of home! In handpicked stories from the pages of Our Canada magazine, readers share amazing acts of valour and kindness, heartfelt memories of family and friends, adventure that takes you to every corner of this land and more. Come celebrate our nation with your fellow Canadians!

Available wherever books are sold. As Kids See It

“I forgot my phone. Now how am I supposed to share this significant childhood moment with my network?”

WHEN MY GRANDSON was four SORRY WE’RE LATE. I let my kid tie years old, he was a fussy eater. At his own shoes. a family dinner, his aunt asked him @MOM_OVERBOARD if he would like an olive and he declined. “Have you ever tasted an IF I, AS A MOM, don’t know where olive?” she asked. something is in this house, it means “No,” he replied. “I don’t try stuff it’s gone forever. I don’t like.” @MOMTRUTHS2BTOLD JOANNE JOHNSON, Nisku, Alta. I’M A PARENT. My hobbies include OUR SIX-YEAR-OLD does a lot of watching fresh produce rot in my trash talking for someone who puts fridge and telling my kids that they his shoes on the wrong feet 30 per should have done what I asked the cent of the time. first time.

@DAD_IN_BRIEF @PETRICKSARA SUSAN CAMILLERI KONAR

128 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca FRIEND: What’s that thing where SHE POOPS TOO MUCH: my son’s you’re always tired but can never review of his new baby sister. get rest? @UNFILTEREDMAMA ME: Parenthood. @MYMOMOLOGUE PREPARE YOUR SPOUSE for parenthood by waking them up at 3 a.m. to WHEN MY DAUGHTER, Caitlin, was tell them it’s not raining and then three, she would cuddle with me demand some cheese. at night. One night I woke up with @MACGYVERINGM22 a sore calf and hopped around the room, trying to shake it off. When she A FRIEND OF MINE asked my asked me what was wrong, I told her grandson, Tyler, how old he was. I had a charley horse. The next night, Tyler answered, “I am four years old.” I woke up to Caitlin jumping around My friend then asked, “When are you and clutching her calf. “It’s okay, going to be five?” After a long pause, Mommy,” she said. “I just have a Tyler answered, “After four.” chatty horse.” PAT MAYER, Sarnia, Ont. LUCY PRIOR, Abbotsford, B.C. REAL QUESTION MY kids got out of SEVEN-YEAR-OLD: “Wow, this must bed to ask me: “Mom, do you have be an antique! It’s from way back in any twigs I can use?” the 1900s!” @ASHLEYAUSTREW ME: “Okay, calm down. It’s from 1997.” @MAUGHAMMOM SIX-YEAR-OLD: *checks out another Star Wars book from the MY FAVOURITE THING about buy- school library* ing food in bulk is when my kids ME: Why do you always get Star immediately decide that they now Wars books? hate that food. SIX-YEAR-OLD: I only read @BLUEBONETBABIES the classics. @XPLODINGUNICORN EVERY NIGHT, my four-year-old son constantly insists that he doesn’t Are the children you know fluent in funny? Tell us about them! A story could want to go to sleep because “sleep earn you $50. For details on how to takes too long.” submit an anecdote, see page 9 or SHAIMA QURESHI, Barrie, Ont. visit rd.ca/joke.

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BRITISH COLUMBIA’S ONLY REMAINING WILD-SALMON PACKING PLANT CHANGES HANDS— AND MAKES HISTORY THE OLD CANNERY’S NEW ERA BY FRANCES BACKHOUSE FROM HAKAI MAGAZINE St. Jean’s Cannery PHOTOGRAPHS BY GRANT CALLEGARI and Smokehouse, in Nanaimo, B.C., processes 30,000 cans a day during peak 130 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca production periods.

READER’S DIGEST

THE STENCH OF FISH OFFAL and brand, a top choice among consumers the screams of birds: a century ago, the interested in sustainability, a change presence of a cannery on the British in the company’s ownership repre- Columbia coast was unmistakable, sents the beginning of an era in which even with your eyes closed. First Nations communities are regain- Open them and you saw gulls and ing control of the marine resources eagles circling and diving to pluck dis- that have sustained them for thou- carded fish heads and entrails from sands of years. the ocean around wooden buildings perched on pilings. A steady parade DURING A VISIT to St. Jean’s in June of fishing boats navigated the blood- 2018, I see that it looks nothing like ied water to pull alongside the can- the canneries of old. Boats, for instance, nery and offload their catches. Inside, an are absent. Located about a kilometre ankle-deep layer of slippery salmon from tidewater in an industrial part of awaiting butcher knives covered the this Vancouver Island city, St. Jean’s gut shed’s plank floor, and the produc- has truck bays instead of wharves for tion line operated at a dizzying pace as receiving fish. The signage is minimal, ranks of workers scaled, washed and but there’s no missing the three-metre- chopped up the salmon before seal- tall can of salmon in front of the clus- ing it in tin cans. ter of low, metal-clad buildings. The province’s salmon runs seemed I enter the yard and ask a man wear- infinite in those days, and business- ing blue coveralls, a ball cap and scuffed men staked out their ground along steel-toed boots where I might find the coast, determined to profit by turn- Steve Hughes, the company president. ing this bounty into a commodity that He flashes a grin and points to the could be shipped worldwide. In 1918, can. Sure enough, there’s a door on shortly before the industry began to the side. Later I will discover that I was consolidate, the number of canneries talking to the company’s not-quite- peaked at 80. retired former owner, Gerard St. Jean. Although a number of commercial In November 2015, he sold controlling canneries still process wild fish in East- interest in his family’s business to NCN ern Canada, only a single one remains Cannery LP, a partnership between on the B.C. coast. Far from being just five of the 14 Nuu-chah-nulth First an archaic relic, however, St. Jean’s Nations that call the western side of Cannery and Smokehouse in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island home. B.C., is at the forefront of a new move- Inside the can, which turns out to ment in the province’s fishing industry. be a cozy, wood-panelled museum- In addition to producing the Raincoast cum-boardroom, are three people who

132 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca represent the new face of the business: processing, starting in 1889 and end- Hughes, as well as Jennifer Woodland ing in the late 1970s. and Larry Johnson, the CEO and pres- St. Jean’s, launched in 1961, was a ident, respectively, of Nuu-chah-nulth latecomer and began not with salmon Seafood, the First Nations–owned par- but with oysters. Armand St. Jean ent company of NCN Cannery. On one started the business in his backyard, level, the history of St. Jean’s is the tale working out of a smokehouse he had of a business. On another, it’s a story built behind his garage. At first, he about a social change rippling through packaged his smoked oysters, which B.C.’s coastal communities. he called “smudgies,” in plastic bags and sold them to bar patrons around WHILE THE PROVINCE’S canning town. By 1964, he had progressed to industry dates back to the earliest days vacuum-sealed tins, expanded his line

AT FIRST, ARMAND ST. JEAN PACKAGED OYSTERS IN PLASTIC BAGS AND SOLD THEM TO BAR PATRONS AROUND TOWN. of Confederation, the canning process to include oyster chowder and salmon itself is even older, invented by a French and set up a dedicated processing chef in the early 1800s. By 1864, Amer- facility with about five employees. He icans were canning salmon on the also began offering small-lot custom Pacific coast. Three years later, Scot- processing to recreational anglers. tish entrepreneur James Syme estab- In 1979, when Armand announced lished a canning operation near the he’d soon retire, Gerard St. Jean left his Fraser River in what would soon job as a mechanical engineer to con- become British Columbia—the first of tinue his father’s legacy—only to be 223 salmon canneries that have come pitched straight into the economically and gone in the province since then. stormy 1980s. St. Jean’s almost went The most fleeting of these enterprises, under soon after Gerard took over, but like Syme’s, lasted a season or two. just when things looked hopeless, he The most tenacious, the North Pacific landed a massive contract to produce Cannery in Prince Rupert, boasted canned seafood for the 1986 world almost 90 consecutive years of fish exposition held in Vancouver. Expo 86

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 133 St. Jean’s president Steve Hughes, standing at the boardroom entrance, believes the company's commitment to hand-packing results in a better product. revitalized the company’s bank account The original plant was just one room, and boosted its public profile, allow- and this space still houses the main ing Gerard to carry on. canning line, pumping out as many as 30,000 cans a day during peak produc- THE CORE BUSINESS of St. Jean’s is tion periods. Although today is not a still canning seafood, primarily from high-output day, there’s purposeful B.C. waters but sometimes from action taking place. Ten women deftly Alaska, Washington or Oregon. Oysters place glistening pieces of raw tuna and salmon still figure prominently, into open cans. Nearby, tins of sockeye though the operation is now much salmon travel the length of a conveyor, more diversified than in Armand’s day. each one receiving a dash of sea salt Just how wide-ranging it is becomes before its lid is dropped into place, apparent inside the processing facili- vacuum-sealed and seamed. ties, which are a maze of intercon- Next door, on the cutting line, half a nected buildings filled with workers dozen employees wielding knives rap- wearing rubber boots, blue hairnets idly reduce whole pink salmon to neat and bright-yellow aprons. fillets for a corporate barbecue order.

134 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca In the smokehouse, the air is redolent to “select only the best stuff” results in with the scent generated by the hard- a higher-quality product. Consumers, woods used to cure salmon, tuna, oys- who pay a premium of a dollar or ters and mussels. Inside the walk-in more per can, apparently agree. freezers, the shelves are loaded with According to Hughes, St. Jean’s is also frozen products that include halibut, the only company putting canned-in- black cod and spot prawns. Canada wild Pacific salmon and tuna on grocery-store shelves. (Most canned IN ADDITION TO its own St. Jean’s salmon and tuna sold in North America and Raincoast retail brands, the facil- comes from processing facilities located ity also handles processing for a num- in Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam ber of co-pack clients—commercial or Alaska.) “In general, the canned entities that put their own labels on seafood market globally is slightly the finished goods—and thousands of down, but we don’t experience that,” recreational fishers. Hughes notes. “There was a percep- While diversification has helped tion before [that] the garbage goes in St. Jean’s outlive its competitors, the the can. We clearly focus on a different company’s old-fashioned ethos may end of the spectrum, and that is reso- be the most important factor in its per- nating with people, so we see growth.” sistence. In the early days of the industry, every step of the process was done WHEN GERARD started contemplat- by hand—including making the cans. ing retirement a few years ago, there But as the 20th century rolled out, can- was no shortage of offers for his com- nery owners increasingly embraced pany. Yet rather than go with the efficiency-enhancing innovations such highest bidder, he chose the one he as can-filling devices and butchering felt best matched his values and machines. St. Jean’s, however, has would keep the business on Vancou- always maintained the human touch, ver Island. a fortuitous choice that has perfectly His decision to sell to NCN Can- positioned the company to take advan- nery, the limited partnership formed tage of today’s foodie culture, with its by the Ditidaht, Huu-ay-aht, Uchuck- passion for all things artisanal. lesaht, Yuułu ił ath. (Ucluelet) and St. Jean’s is a hand-pack cannery, Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ (Kyuquot- Hughes explains, contrasting this Checleseht) Firstᢺ ᢺ Nations, was nota- method to mechanized canning, where ble on two counts. Only weeks ear- there’s “literally a giant piston jam- lier, Canadian Fishing Co. (Canfisco) ming salmon into a can.” Hand filling had permanently shut down the can- is slower, but Hughes says the ability ning line at its Prince Rupert plant in

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 135 READER’S DIGEST northern B.C., blaming declining fish canneries, including the promi- demand for canned salmon and its nent Swinomish Fish Company in La Alaskan competitors’ lower wages and Conner, Wash.) operating costs. That left St. Jean’s as Nuu-chah-nulth Seafood president the last commercial cannery process- Larry Johnson is Huu-ay-aht and grew ing wild salmon in the province. And up immersed in his people’s fish cul- the fact that St. Jean’s was now in First ture in the small fishing village of Nations hands was equally significant. Bamfield, located on the other side of First Nations labour was critical to the island from Nanaimo. “All the hus- the success of the province’s canning bands would be out on seine boats or industry, especially in the early days halibut boats or trollers,” he recalls, when the region’s non-Indigenous while their wives fished from smaller population was small. However, the vessels, closer to shore. When they

THE FIRST NATIONS MEN WHO SUPPLIED FISH TO CANNERIES WERE MARGINALIZED BY DISCRIMINATORY RULES. men who initially supplied all of the brought home their catch, they’d can fish to the canneries were soon mar- it or smoke it, just like countless gen- ginalized by discriminatory race-based erations of women before them. As rules that restricted their ability to for the children, “We learned how to obtain independent fishing licences— clean a fish probably at about six years while inside the plants, the commun- old,” Johnson says. ity’s women were always the backbone Johnson himself started fishing of the workforce. with his father around age six and First Nations cannery ownership, on eventually became a commercial fish- the other hand, is almost unpreced- erman. In 1995, however, he left the ented in B.C. The only historical excep- fishing boats and began working for tion is a salmon cannery owned and the Huu-ay-aht First Nations in treaty operated by the Tsimshian community negotiations and resource manage- of Metlakatla for a few seasons in the ment. His mission is to reconnect his early 1880s. (In the United States, there people to their marine roots and revi- are several Native American–owned talize their communities through new,

136 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca sustainable economic opportunities. IN THE MEANTIME, the NCN Cannery Helping the Nuu-chah-nulth take the members are benefiting from those, helm at St. Jean’s fit perfectly with this like Hughes, who’ve long worked at vision. As well, he aspires to find ways St. Jean’s—gaining access to exper- to integrate their commercial fisheries tise that is helping them develop their and community members. own Aboriginal caught-and-processed In time, this could include St. Jean’s brand, Gratitude Seafoods. “We want hiring more Nuu-chah-nulth employ- to be able to tell our story through ees and buying more fish from Nuu- seafood,” Johnson says. “We’re saying chah-nulth boats, but currently there we’ve been here since the beginning are constraints on both. None of the of time [and] we’re still connected to NCN Cannery shareholder nations our land and resources.” are within easy commuting distance of Although Gratitude Seafoods canned Nanaimo, and historical circumstances salmon isn’t for sale yet, the new own- have concentrated their commercial ership structure at St. Jean’s is already fishing licences on halibut rather than rewriting the historical narrative about sockeye salmon, the St. Jean’s mainstay. the role of First Nations in B.C.’s fish- An April 2018 British Columbia ing industry. Nuu-chah-nulth Seafood Supreme Court decision that affirms CEO Woodland recently met a woman the Aboriginal right of five specific who had stopped by St. Jean’s to col- Nuu-chah-nulth nations to catch and lect her custom-processed fish. When sell any fish from their territories may Woodland saw her taking a picture of eventually open up new opportunities the giant salmon can, she went over for other First Nations. However, none to chat. Her response to Woodland’s of the plaintiff nations in that court greeting speaks volumes about the case are part of the NCN Cannery pride generated by the paradigm shift. group, and wider applications of the “I’m Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’,” the ruling may be years away. woman said. “This is ours.”

RULE THE ROOST

I just got a job as a senior director at Old McDonald's farm. I'm the CIEIO.

DEEPFRIEDTWIX on reddit.com

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 137 EDITORS’ CHOICE Catrin’s Long Way

BackTHE MOUNTAIN ROAD, THE FIERY CRASH AND THE MONTHS OF RECOVERY THAT CHANGED A YOUNG WOMAN’S LIFE FOREVER

BY ROBERT KIENER

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 139 READER’S DIGEST

Catrin Pugh was coming home. The bubbly Welsh 19-year-old had just finished a four-month contract working as a waitress and chambermaid at the ski resort of Alpe d’Huez, high in the French Alps. The pay was minimal, but there was a bonus: she could ski for free on her days off.

This gap-year experience had been the 20-hour drive to the United King- Catrin’s first time living away from dom. She sat directly behind the bus home and she was anxious to see her driver, Maurice Wrightson, so she could parents, Sara and Carl, both of whom take in as much of the Alps’ beautiful were schoolteachers, her brother, Rob- scenery as possible. ert, and her sister, Mari. Although she The first stage of the trip—a descent had an independent streak, she’d been lasting 14 kilometres—had become homesick and longed for her town of world-famous as one of the most Wrexham, in northern Wales, where gruelling climbs of the Tour de France. she’d grown up and gone to school. At each of the route’s 21 hairpin turns Along with 50 other young seasonal there was a plaque commemorating workers, she had boarded a charter former winners of this stage in the

bus on April 16, 2013, at the resort for bicycle race. MIRROR WALES/TRINITY POST OLIVER/DAILY STACEY SPREAD) (PREVIOUS

140 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca As Wrightson manoeuvred the bus, was deafening. Battered and dazed, Catrin looked out on snow-capped most passengers clambered out of the peaks and sun-filled valleys. Suddenly bus’s emergency exit or jumped out the bus sped up after it turned onto the windows. Then, in an instant, the fuel straight stretch of road before bend 21, tank in the front of the bus exploded the last turn on the tortuous mountain and set Wrightson on fire. route. “The brakes are gone!” shouted Catrin fell to the floor. As Wrightson Wrightson as the bus continued to gain shouted for help, the flames spread speed, headed for a 90-metre drop-off. along the floor to her and she stood Terrified, Catrin looked out her win- up, in shock. Within seconds, she was dow at the sheer drop to the ravine engulfed in fire. Stewart rushed to below and thought, I’m going to die! Catrin and pulled her off the bus. He We are all going to die! and others smothered the flames that Wrightson violently turned the bus were burning off her clothes and singe- to the right, desperately hoping to ing most of her skin.

CATRIN DIDN’T STOP SCREAMING UNTIL THEY PUT AN OXYGEN MASK ON HER. THEN SHE PASSED OUT. stop it by crashing into the side of the Lying on the side of the road, Catrin mountain instead of allowing it to raised her right arm and was horrified plunge into the valley. At the same to see her mottled, burnt skin. Her time, Catrin’s seatmate, Shaun Stew- hands and arms were raw and blood- art, cradled her in a headlock. “Brace ied. She started screaming. The pain yourself!” he shouted, telling her to was excruciating—it was as if she were wedge her feet against the seat’s sup- being stung by hundreds of hornets. ports to keep from flying out through Passengers ripped off their shirts to the bus’s windshield. cradle her head and stop her bleeding. The bus crashed into the side of the Some held a sheet over her to shield boulder-strewn mountain with such a her from the sun. force that many of the passengers were Paramedics eventually arrived; four thrown onto the floor. The sound of passengers had serious injuries and shattering glass and twisting metal Maurice Wrightson died on the scene.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 141 READER’S DIGEST

The wreckage at the side of the mountain where the bus carrying Catrin Pugh and other seasonal workers crashed and burned.

Catrin didn’t stop screaming until they of a hospital in Grenoble to call for put an oxygen mask on her face. Then more information. she passed out. A helicopter airlifted Catrin to the University Hospital in Grenoble, where he message on Sara Pugh’s doctors discovered she had burns over phone from her husband, 96 per cent of her body. Only her scalp, T Carl, was short: “Come home. a small part of her face and the soles Quickly. Nothing to worry about.” of her feet were untouched. They However, when she arrived at the cou- decided to transfer her to a specialist ple’s four-bedroom house, Carl’s face burn unit at a larger hospital in Lyon, told a different story. “There’s been an an hour away. accident,” he told Sara. “It’s Catrin.” After finally reaching the hospital He explained that he’d gotten a call in Lyon by telephone, Carl learned from France but didn’t know more that Catrin’s burns were extremely

than that. He’d been given the number severe. “It is very serious,” a French IMAGES CLATOT/AFP/GETTY JEAN-PIERRE

142 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca doctor told Carl. “It would be best if heat lamps glowed red above her bed you came right away.” to keep her warm. Her body was com- Sara flew to Lyon the next morning. pletely swathed in a thermal blanket Carl, who was using a wheelchair and thick white bandages, except for after a recent hip-replacement sur- half her face. gery, followed the next day with his Sara nearly broke down. She wanted brother-in-law. to hug Catrin but was afraid of hurt- ing her. She swallowed hard and told n the nearly 24 hours since the herself to be positive. As the ventilator accident, Catrin’s severe burns whirred rhythmically, she looked past I had ravaged her immune system what she could see of Catrin’s black and threatened multiple organ fail- and red burnt, swollen face and con- ure. To spare her from pain, doctors soled herself by thinking, She has her had induced a coma and placed her teeth, her eyebrows and her eyelashes. on a ventilator. She’s still my Cat.

CATRIN WAS ALWAYS PUSHING HERSELF. “I CAN DO THAT” WAS A RECURRING REFRAIN WITH HER. AND SHE DID.

At the hospital in Lyon, Sara met She reached out and touched Catrin’s with Catrin’s head doctor and asked bandaged arm. “Cat, it’s Mum, I am him, “Do you survive something like right here,” she told her. “We are this?” The doctor paused, looked going to get you better,” even though down at the floor, then met her gaze she didn’t think Catrin would survive and answered gently, “A small—a very, more than a few days. very small—number of people do.” The next evening, after Carl had Before Sara walked into Catrin’s arrived and had seen Catrin, he and room in the hospital’s intensive care Sara tried to prepare for the worst. department, she steeled herself. I But Carl couldn’t bear the thought of won’t cry. I have to be brave, she losing his “Princess.” Besides, Catrin thought. Then she saw Catrin, uncon- had a resilience that had served her scious and tethered to a wall of blink- well throughout her 19 years. “Strong ing, whirring machines. A bank of willed” is how he and Sara had often

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 143 READER’S DIGEST

described her. As Carl once explained, Whiston Hospital, one of the most pres- “She has never been backward about tigious burn centres in the U.K. The coming forward.” doctors in France are going to have a Catrin started going to dance school tough time, he thought. I don’t think when she was just eight years old and she can survive with 96 per cent burns. loved getting on a stage to act and sing. Unbeknownst to James, the U.K.- (Her dream was to enrol in a theatre based company that had hired Catrin to school in London.) On family vacations work in France had been in frantic dis- she would copy a hotel’s flamenco cussions with French and British doc- dancers and dance around the tables. tors about the possibility of flying Catrin She was the one who loved getting out to England for treatment. A bed was the camera at family events and urging available at Whiston, her best hope. everyone to “Give us a smile!” Five days after her accident, an elite She was always pushing herself. She team of surgeons, nurses, anesthesi- started working as a waitress in the local ologists and medical technicians at

FOR MORE THAN A WEEK, CATRIN DRIFTED IN AND OUT OF CONSCIOUSNESS. THEN ON DAY 100, SHE FINALLY MOVED.

pub at just 16. When she chose to do her Whiston operated on Catrin in a deter- A-levels in math, no one could persuade mined effort to save her life. First, they her to try something less demanding. scraped off her dead skin because it “I can do that” was a recurring refrain can easily become infected. Patients with her. And she did. who don’t survive such large burns usually die from an infection of the an James, one of the United King- unhealed wounds, so keeping them dom’s most accomplished burn clean was a priority. I specialists, had just finished lec- They took a small sample of turing to physicians and medical stu- unburned skin from her scalp and sent dents in Athens, Greece, when he read it to a laboratory to be grown, or cul- a news story about Catrin’s accident. tured, for future grafting. Then they The plastic surgeon supervised Mersey covered more than 40 per cent of Regional Burns Unit at Liverpool’s Catrin’s raw tissue with cadaver skin

144 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca from Liverpool’s national skin bank to physiotherapists “exercised” her arms help prevent infection, preserve body and legs twice a day, bending and temperature and promote healing. extending them. Eventually, the donor skin would be Then, one day, James told Sara and replaced by new skin grafts. Carl that their daughter, the girl who Catrin survived the five- hour operation, but when James met with Sara and Carl he was blunt: her chances were “one in 1,000.” Infection was a threat; James’s team needed to change Catrin’s antiseptic dressings in three- to four-hour sessions, once or twice every day. Because her organs had been so damaged by the trauma, the threat of kidney failure or heart attack was ever-present. James described the medical proced- ures as “military teamwork.” Every day was a battle. Mari, Sara and Carl Pugh with Catrin, a few One week went by. Then months after she was brought to the hospital. another. Time and again, Catrin was operated on as surgeons was so fond of saying “I can do that” had harvested and grafted new skin. At beaten nearly impossible odds: “I’ve three weeks, James admitted he was never seen anyone as badly burned as surprised. He told Carl and Sara that, Catrin survive,” James said. It was time miraculously, the odds of Catrin’s sur- to bring her back. vival had improved to one in 100. For more than a week, as she was weaned off the cocktail of drugs that or three months, Catrin sedated her, Catrin drifted in and out remained locked in a coma. of consciousness. Then, on day 100, F Every day was a battle, but her she finally moved. young body fought off infection after Because Catrin had been comatose infection and withstood extensive skin and immobile for months, her muscles grafts and major operations. To pre- had atrophied. She had lost 30 kilo-

JOHN JEFFAY/CASCADE NEWS JEFFAY/CASCADE JOHN vent her new skin from stiffening, grams, nearly half her body weight.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 145 READER’S DIGEST

Catrin was too weak to hold her head one will ever love me, she thought to up and would have to relearn to stand herself. Later, as she drifted off to sleep, and then walk. She had more than a she told Sara, “It would have been year of physiotherapy ahead of her. easier if I had died.” The major burns had destroyed tis- But she still hadn’t seen her face or sue and caused neuropathy, a condi- her shaved head. tion in which the nerves virtually stop Donnas Wilkinson, a 30-year vet- working. While her nerves began to eran nurse who had been supervising regrow and recover, she experienced Catrin’s recovery, realized it was time horrible pain. Painkillers helped some- to let the teen see herself when she what, but Catrin dreaded having her overheard her telling her mother, “I dressings changed. Inevitably, as care- can’t wait to shampoo my hair again.” fully as her nurses removed her dress- Wilkinson went to grab a hand mirror. ings, they would peel away some raw Silence. Then screams. Then tears. skin and Catrin would scream. “No! No!” Catrin cried. “I look like an

CATRIN HAD HAD ENOUGH. THE PAIN, HER APPEARANCE AND THE FRUSTRATION OF LEARNING TO WALK WERE TOO MUCH.

Then there was her appearance: alien. It’s not fair.” No matter how most of her face had been badly burned much Wilkinson tried to console her, and she had lost part of an ear and the explaining that her hair would grow tips of several fingers. Doctors had back and she’d look so much better shaved off the luxurious long hair she someday, Catrin kept crying. had been so proud of; they would scrape her head for skin grafts six times atrin had had enough. The while she was in the hospital. pain, the heartbreak of her During her thrice-weekly baths, C appearance, the frustration of which required 10 people to hold and having to learn to walk and feed her- bathe her in an oversized tub, Catrin self were too much. “I won’t,” became could see her body. She was horrified; her answer to the simplest request. it looked like a scarred checkerboard James and Wilkinson had seen other of raw pinks and bloodied reds. No burn patients sink into depression

146 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca and they knew what they had to do. To help prevent permanent scar- “We are going to push Catrin,” James ring, Catrin needed to wear pressure told Sara and Carl. “She may hate us, garments and a custom-moulded but that’s okay.” plastic face mask 23 hours a day. When They went on the offensive. When she began resisting, Wilkinson asked Catrin refused to do her physiotherapy, 31-year-old Heather Simpson, who James told her firmly, “If you ever had been burned over 75 per cent of want to use your hands again, you her body, to visit Catrin. have to exercise them now. If you want As Simpson stood at her bedside, to dance and perform again, you need Catrin peppered her with questions: to start trying.” “Will it hurt forever?” (It will be man- Catrin burst into tears. James imme- ageable.) “Do you live on your own?” diately asked her why she was crying. (I am married.) “Do you have a job?” She answered, “Because you said I will (I went to university and now have a never dance again.” government job.)

SHE’D BEEN HOME FOR JUST UNDER A YEAR WHEN CATRIN TOLD HER PARENTS SHE WANTED TO SKI AGAIN.

“No,” James answered. “What I said Simpson also gave Catrin some stern was that you would never dance again advice: “You can play the victim, but if you don’t try.” people will eventually get bored with His approach began working. Catrin that. It’s up to you.” pushed through the pain of physio- Catrin confessed that she hated wear- therapy by thinking, I’ll show them. ing her pressure garments. Simpson One day, she asked a nurse to help said, “So did I.” She took off her jacket her take a selfie to post on Instagram. and showed Catrin her right arm, which I know I look horrible but I’ll show had healed nicely. Then she showed the world! Catrin thought. The picture her left, which was badly scarred. was of her with a shaved, scabbed “Guess which arm I didn’t wear my head, a feeding tube hanging from pressure garment on,” said Simpson. her nose and a massive smile. The The visit was what Catrin needed. caption read, “Getting there.” She co-operated tirelessly with her

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 147 She didn’t want to dis- appoint James. Try, she told herself. Catrin gingerly walked one step, then another. There was pain, but it was manage- able. She managed three or four more before falling into James’s arms.

atrin began walking, then running on a C treadmill, then jog- ging outdoors. She had also regained the use of her arms and was controlling her pain with over-the-counter reme- dies. Her hair had grown back, and she no longer needed to wear her face mask and tight- Training at Ski Center Llandudno, a year-round fitting pressure garments. facility in northern Wales. By the time she’d been home for just under a year physiotherapists. And on December 7, and was walking unassisted, she told 2013, after nearly eight months in the her parents she wanted to ski again— hospital, she went home to continue and she wanted to go back to the her recovery. Although she couldn’t French Alps. Sara and Carl couldn’t feed herself, clean herself or walk believe their ears. How would Catrin unaided, she worked in the hopes of cope with returning to the scene of her one day regaining her independence. accident? But they both knew their Three months later, she returned to daughter well enough not to doubt Whiston hospital for a checkup. James her. Catrin began taking lessons with had just finished checking her dress- a charity for disabled skiers, using ings and Catrin was sitting on a bed adapted skis (laughing, she called it when he said, “Walk to me, Catrin.” “my walker on skis”) to glide down an “I can’t,” she answered him. “Not artificial “dry” ski slope in Wales. by myself.” On December 23, 2014, Catrin, her “Give it a go,” he said. “I’ll catch you family and friends returned to Val

if you fall.” Thorens, the highest ski resort in MIRROR TRINITY

148 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca Europe. The family had come here her skin and her legs responding to the for more than a decade, and this was snow. She wasn’t speeding down the where Catrin, Robert and Mari had slope as she had years before, but this learned to ski. But this year was dif- was still a victory. ferent; a television crew accom- Before she slowed to a stop at the panied the family to cover her return bottom she spotted her father, wait- to the slopes. ing with his arms outspread. Tears Under an impossibly blue sky, Catrin were streaming down Carl’s face. His was helped into her skis. She double- daughter had defeated impossible checked her goggles and ski helmet. odds. Carl hugged her, whispering, She confessed to the reporter, “I have “You’re back, Catrin. You did it!” butterflies in my stomach.” As the cameras rolled, she took off, skiing For the past four years, Catrin has slowly but steadily down one of the travelled across the U.K., speaking to gentler slopes. students and other groups. She tells As she sped up, something extraor- them her story—all about how she dinary happened. Her brother, sister recovered from her injuries, the need and friends formed a diamond-shaped to triumph over adversity, becoming moving barrier around her, protect- “better, not bitter” and the import- ing her as she glided down the slope. ance of maintaining a good body Catrin was thrilled. I’m free, she thought image, no matter how scarred one as she once again felt the wind against may be.

SETTLING SCORES

Compromise is the best and cheapest lawyer.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

The body can endure compromise and the mind can be seduced by it. Only the heart protests. The heart. Carbon-based primitive in a silicon world.

JEANETTE WINTERSON

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don’t be.

GOLDA MEIR

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 149 GET SMART!

13 Things You Should Know About Unplugging

BY ANNA-KAISA WALKER ILLUSTRATION BY CLAYTON HANMER

Need a digital detox? Feeling irrit- This may be due to a psychological 1 able without your smartphone, phenomenon called “social compari- losing sleep due to your tech usage son.” When everyone else’s (heavily and noticing an inability to sustain edited) lives seem happier than one’s a real-life conversation without check- own, self-esteem can nosedive. ing social media are signs you need a break. “If you’re stopping everything Delete all but your most essential for a notification, ask yourself if you 3apps (bye-bye, Clash of Clans). really have control over your life,” says “Which ones are you using to pacify author and Kingston, Ont.–based your attention, rather than to con- productivity consultant Chris Bailey. nect with others?” Bailey asks.

One 2017 University of Pittsburgh Your phone ruins your conversa- 2 study found that heavy social 4 tions—even when you’re not media use can lead to a nine per cent looking at it. A 2014 American study increase in the risk of depression. found that the mere presence of

150 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca a phone was enough to divide partici- friends and colleagues know that pants’ attention and cause them to you won’t be responding to messages. miss subtle cues from conversation This accomplishes two things: first, partners, such as facial expressions. they won’t think you’re being rude. Second, announcing your detox A 2016 University of California helps you stick to it. 5 study found that subjects could only focus on a single screen-based Once you’re tech-free, plan task for 40 seconds before switching 10 activities to fill the time you’d to another activity. “Flipping between otherwise spend hunched over your apps delivers a dopamine hit to your device—like knitting, playing board brain because you’re wired to seek out games or visiting a bookstore. novel information,” Bailey says. “When you detox, you notice patterns that are Bailey recommends enlisting keeping you from focusing deeply.” 11 the help of an accountability partner—perhaps by asking them Set solid parameters. Will you permission to go online. “It’s embar- 6 go offline for the same 24-hour rassing to have to ask if you can period every week or try for a longer, check Instagram,” Bailey says. “You’ll one-off stretch? “Think back to be more likely to stick to your plan.” when you felt the most rested and refreshed—say, a week-long vacation Rather than pacifying your without your laptop,” Bailey says, and 12 boredom—or other negative aim for the same time frame. emotions—by checking social media, keep a digital-detox journal. Instead Unplugging doesn’t have to be all of tapping and scrolling, write your 7 or nothing—start incrementally, feelings down using good old pen with tech-free dinners or a no-phone and paper. “Journalling is a great way portion of the day, then work up to to notice patterns,” Bailey says. “Keep an attainable goal. your focus on something meaningful and your boredom will evaporate.” If you can see your phone, you’ll 8 reach for it. To stick to your If you find yourself on your objective, turn on the do-not-disturb 13 phone before your detox is function, then stash it out of sight. scheduled to end, simply put it away and try again. Or give yourself a short Should you abstain completely daily allowance, say 10 minutes, to 9 for more than a day, let family, keep up with essential online tasks.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 151 That’s Outrageous! DO WE REALLY NEED THAT? BY MEGAN JONES

EGO HYGIENE stay in control—her Finally—men needn’t risk feminine wiles. This harming their mascu- French Pinot Noir is sim- linity every time they ilarly seductive,” read one, visit the drugstore. If referring to the series’ pro- you haven’t heard, Unilever tagonist. As it turns out, offers the Q-tips Men’s Pack, a bun- a tie-in with a story about women dle of cotton swabs that are identical being exploited for their reproductive to the regular ones but promise to capabilities didn’t make for a popular be so much more. According to the summer promotion. Facing backlash, packaging, these Q-tips are the “ultim- Lot18 cancelled the wines within 24 ate multi-tool” and are necessary for hours. Not so blessed were the fruits. “detailing, cleaning and building.” What are men supposed to be build- AN OVERCOOKED IDEA ing inside their ears? We might never It’s a problem that’s plagued humans know—and that’s totally fine with us. since the invention of the toaster: you drop your bread into the appli- BAD AFTERTASTE ance, then watch it emerge charred. Not every TV series needs swag. Case Last January, Griffin Technology in point: in July, wine curators Lot18 announced it had solved this conun- announced a collection of bottles drum with its Connected Toaster, based on The Handmaid’s Tale, Mar- which is controlled by an app that garet Atwood’s book-turned-show allows users to dial in a temperature in which women are enslaved by and heating time—preferences it a totalitarian state. The products’ remembers. While the device was descriptions left many wondering never released due to a lack of cus- if they already live in a dystopian tomer interest, don’t fret: these feats future: “Completely stripped of her can be accomplished by setting a rights and freedoms, Offred must rely “dumb” toaster’s knobs to the right

on the one weapon she has left to spot, and leaving them there. LORANGER PIERRE

152 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca

153

• 2018 12 rd.ca | |

ANSWERS: 1. The Andromeda galaxy. 2. Mazda. 3. Gerald Ford. 4. Tyson Fury. ISTOCK.COM/AVN PHOTOLAB 5. Notre-Dame de Paris. 6. Pegasus. 7. South Korea. 8. Sicily. 9. Belarus. 10. St. Lucia’s Day. 11. Bosnia and Herzegovina. The presidents represent the Bosniaks, Croatians and

Serbs. 12. Mick Jagger. 13. Die Hard. 14. Apple. 15. The violin.

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BY PAUL PAQUET PAUL BY Trivia Quiz Trivia Brainteasers

Challenge yourself by solving these puzzles and mind stretchers, then check your answers on page 156.

REFILL (Moderately difficult) Your patio’s been damaged, leaving a big hole. How many replacement paving stones do you need Replacement to fill the entire hole, paving stone and is it possible to do so without cutting any of them?

64RECTANGLES (Difficult) 86 Subdivide this region along the grid lines 9 into non-overlapping rectangles and squares. 20 Each one of these 12 rectangles or squares must contain exactly 3 one number that indicates how many cells make up its area. Can you draw all of the 48correct boundaries? (REFILL) DARREN RIGBY; (RECTANGLES) FRASER SIMPSON FRASER (RECTANGLES) RIGBY; DARREN (REFILL)

154 | 12 • 2018 | rd.ca (BUTTONS) MARCEL DANESI; (SET-FREE) FRASER SIMPSON; (× (AND ÷ ) FACTOR) DARREN RIGBY buttons didhebuy? spent atotalof$4.83,how many ofeachbuttonincents.price Ifhe buttons hebought, you getthe if youaddtwotothenumber of same price. It just sohappens that buttons forajacket, eachforthe Erik bought someidentical brass at every stage.at None every ofthesewholenumbers may exceed200. problemsthe arithmetic yieldwholenumbers (notfractions) asanswers Arrange thepairsofnumbers below into themarked spacessothat all × BUTTONS 60 50 48 54 (AND ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ) FACTOR (Easy) = = = = (Difficult) × × × × B). Can youensure aset-free grid? three different letters(suchasC-A- letters (suchasB-B-B)orasetof line may contain asetofidentical ordiagonal vertical a horizontal, cell. No three consecutivecellsin BorCineachempty Place anA, SET-FREE = = = = CB BB (Moderately difficult) CA ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ rd.ca | 12

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Answers Answers Brainteasers: Brainteasers: Word Power

A Dickens Christmas evokes roasted chestnuts, ghostly visitors and descriptive language. Try this quiz made up of words from A Christmas Carol to find out if you have the gift for Victorian vocabulary.

BY LINDA BESNER

1. avarice—A: extreme desire for 9. sexton—A: church caretaker. material wealth. B: vermin. B: navigational instrument for C: clove-studded orange. measuring altitudes. C: sixth note in a musical scale. 2. ruddy—A: steering mechanism on a boat. B: widow younger than 30. 10. shun—A: avoid or reject. C: red or reddish. B: cobbler’s hammer. C: peel away.

3. hob—A: metal shelf at the side of 11. slipshod—A: chest where summer a fireplace. B: naughty child. C: surface clothing is kept during winter. B: care- upon which a blacksmith pounds iron. lessly done. C: clad in light shoes. 4. lamentation —A: process by 12. legatee—A: ballroom dance which milk becomes cheese. in two-four time. B: stewed mutton B: expression of regret or sadness. dish. C: recipient of a legacy. C: singing and making merry. 13. curtsy—A: formal greeting 5. irresolute—A: under poor finan- gesture made by bending the knees. cial management. B: abrasive. B: flowered cotton fabric. C: uncertain and hesitant. C: rude demeanour. 6. negus—A: hot spiced port drink. B: fortune teller. C: evil spirit. 14. cupola—A: Victorian clapping game. B: small structure on a roof. 7. relinquish—A: reattach. B: reduce C: drinking vessel made from a by boiling. C: give up. sheep’s horn.

8. boisterous—A: able to float. 15. solemnize—A: mark an occasion B: noisy and energetic. with celebration or ritual. B: assume C: light and springy. a sombre attitude. C: blaspheme.

rd.ca | 12 • 2018 | 157 READER’S DIGEST Answers

1. avarice—[A] extreme desire for 9. sexton—[A] church caretaker; as, material wealth; as, Mrs. Pincher’s The sexton guided the visitor to her avarice led her to raise the rent on grandmother’s grave. her tenants. 10. shun—[A] avoid or reject; as, 2. ruddy—[C] red or reddish; as, After the argument, Mr. Kapoor The child’s cheeks were ruddy from shunned Ms. Whinmoor’s company. the crisp winter air.

11. slipshod—[B] carelessly done; as, 3. hob—[A] metal shelf at the side of The slipshod workmanship made the a fireplace; as, A servant stirred a pot garden steps dangerous to tread. of porridge on the hob.

4. lamentation—[B] expression of 12. legatee—[C] recipient of a regret or sadness; as, Finding the legacy; as, On discovering herself cupboard empty, Mr. Jameel gave to be Mrs. Gassama’s legatee, Ms. voice to a heartfelt lamentation. Cohen was overcome with gratitude.

5. irresolute—[C] uncertain and 13. curtsy—[A] formal greeting hesitant; as, Caught between the gesture made by bending the knees; misery of going back to the orphan- as, When presented to the queen, the age and the dangers of continuing young girl made a deep curtsy. in the dark, Shira was irresolute. 14. cupola—[B] small structure on 6. negus—[A] hot spiced port drink; a roof; as, The barn’s cupola was as, When the vicar arrived at the topped with a brass weathervane. holiday party, his host handed him a mug full of negus. 15. solemnize—[A] mark an occasion with celebration or ritual; as, 7. relinquish—[C] give up; as, The The couple solemnized their wedding pickpocket reluctantly relinquished with a waltz. the stolen watch.

VOCABULARY RATINGS 8. boisterous —[B] noisy and ener- 7–10: fair getic; as, Jack was admonished for his 11–12: good boisterous behaviour in the classroom. 13–15: excellent

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