Sandra Winter Memorial Celebration JANUARY 10th: Please Come!

As many of you have now heard, Sandra Winter passed away on December 23, 2009, with her son Gaelen by her side.Sandra died of complications from her lung transplant surgery in Toronto General Hospital. A memorial service will be held at some later date in Nova Scotia, most likely in the Spring. However I would like to invite all of you and anyone you know to a CELEBRATION OF SANDRA held at my gallery...Argyle Fine Art. But don't think of it as a gallery event...imagine this as my home (which I suppose it kinda is, ha) Be comfortable. The idea is to create a time for anyone that knew her or helped in some way, even by donating stuff to an event or attending our yard sales, ..to get together and remember, celebrate.

Celebration of Sandra: Sunday, January 10th, 1pm-4pm. 1869 Upper Water Street/ Halifax, NS
Theme is POTLUCK..(afterall FOOD can heal!) Bring dishes that are already warm...we only have a small microwave here...
Bring a favourite dish, nibbly AND a special memory you have of Sandra or a note to the family.
Write it on a recipe card or recipe card sized piece of paper...I will then forward all your notes and thoughts to Sandra's son and family. Will can post these up on the walls of the gallery as they arrive for the afternoon of the 10th....and hope to be joined by a musician or two as well. If any of you would like to verbally share a few words about Sandra that would be great as well. Let me know how you can help out if you can....hope you can all make it.

We are still waiting to hear details, however it is my understanding that Sandra wanted to set up a fund in her name, to be used for others that find themselves in a similar situation as she did, financially. I hope to have that information available by then as well, should you want to help out that way as a memorial.

Each of us will have our own special memories of Sandra's incredible spirit of life and will be forever touched by her. She's one of the bravest people I have ever known and I miss her terribly, but I know she would want us to celebrate all that she is too! Hope to see you.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at 902-425-9456. If you want to send a message along if you live at a distance, please mail it to Argyle Fine Art, 1869 Upper Water Street, Halifax, NS B3J 1S9.

Thank you to everyone that has helped along the way...with fundraising, donations, yard sales, ticket sales, sign making, drag show folks, artists, The Lung Association, etc etc...so many people to thank. Hope to do that in person soon!

With the warmest wishes and thoughts for 2010,
Adriana

HELLO EVERYBODY!

SPRING IS HERE...and WINTER IS NOT....a famous Sandra Winter telephone voice message which I wish were not true right now. As many of you know, Sandra Winter is patiently awaiting STILL....yes, for her double lung translant! Til then though, feel free to drop a line her through my email at cinnamongal29@yahoo.com. Check back often for news updates and fundraisers and great stories by Sandra of course.

This week is Donor week....here is a link to a recent article. Keep fingers crossed that soon Sandra will be able to get back to life!

http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/local/article/216332--donor-week-kicks-off-with-push-for-youth-to-recycle-their-organs

Kansas above with her hoody ready for hunting season.

No the snow has not yet arrived at Wilcox. According to my friend and groundskeeper, Buddy, the Shore is experiencing a mild reprieve from a cold start to winter. Still, green grass or snowbanks a mile high, I sure wish I was there.

And yet...here on Bay Street one can sometimes see the most spectacular shows of nature. A couple of weeks ago I looked out to see a raptor of some kind circling between the buildings, spiraling up on the up drafts and then looping back low and starting the spiral again. Soon I noticed he/she had been joined by another...and another...until there were 14 in all. 14 raptors (they looked larger than the peregrines I first took them for) spinning and spinning...'kettling' my bird watching friend Marsha Jane (above) tells me. Never heard that word used that way before. A kettling of eagles. She tells me that they do that to gather before a migration.

So I live in the wilderness at Wilcox to experience nature first hand and I come to downtown Toronto, a different kind of wilderness, to find this spectacle presenting itself to me, unasked. Goes to show, like the song says, "you can't always get what you want, but you get what you need". I sure needed that kettling, that touchstone with something wild and certain.

Life continues to be a ball of uncertainty here. I go on getting my teeth fixed and having my skin attended to, such ordinary things. Things for future benefit. And I wonder each time what the point is without the lungs. Shouldn't everything go on hold until then? And then I get it, not for the first time, but for the millionth time. Why is this lesson so hard to learn?

Life is about today. Waiting until there is enough time, money, health, energy, space, willpower, is cheating yourself. There is never a perfect time to be. Borrowing from AA, "Fake it 'till you make it" if necessary. But get on with now. It's all there is. And today for me it contains a kettling of eagles and it's good.

Warm thoughts
Sandra

YARD SALE THIS SUNDAY, Sept. 28th 9am-1pm

This SUNDAY, Sept 28th, 9am-1pm.....if the weather holds out, there will be one more little yard sale for Sandra Winter. It will be held at 6165 Willow Street, Halifax, NS.

If you have things to donate you can bring them to this address the day of the sale, as there is no storage space for items this time. Any questions, you can contact Anne Hillis at 463-1007!

See ya at the sale!

Season of the Monarch

The Monarchs are back! I was astonished the first autumn I spent here on Bay Street to find at least a month where not a day went by without a monarch butterfly or two passing my balcony on its way to ...South America? It seemed like a fluke. Or a sign. I found a lot of encouragement in that happening and my mother made it into an emblem for me, adding it as the image on my calling card and making a stained glass container for the cards.

Now it has happened again. The Monarchs are back. No fluke. Those guys are inspired to keep going. A whole year and then some and I'm still here waiting but, the important bit is the 'still here' part. Life is stripped quite bare by now and even so, it offers up stunning moments like the day last week of the first Monarch sighting.

The last few months have been filled with a new element. That of hired caregivers. I've had women from Russia, Antigua, Ethiopia, China, Hungary and Jamaica come to do everything from pick up and dust the apartment, to escorting me to the treadmill room. Combined with the emotional support that I've always got from my team and family, I feel as if I'm the central figure in a Noh theatre piece, everyone else dressed in black, invisibly facilitating my being able to lead my life of 'independance'. I'm so impressed at the gentleness and kindness these women offer day after day allowing me the dignity of a relatively seamless life even when I need so much help to pull it off.

On a very exciting note, all transplant hopefulls were called to a meeting a few weeks ago to hear a presentation by the head surgeon, Dr. Shav Keshavjii. Dr Keshavjii was the surgeon who did my first transplant and is a brilliant fellow) He wanted to present us with an exciting new project called HELP which will change lung tranplant radically. The research is done. The approvals are in and the live study is underway.

Kshavjii told us that of all the lungs donated only 18% are in usable shape when they arrive at the hospital on ice. The rest have minor to major problems. He has developed an invivo process (like an incubator) to hold a less than perfect lung, infuse it with air (rather than keep it on ice) and allow it to rest for a period of a few hours. He has found that this rest period allows a very high percentage of the lungs to self correct and make them meet or exceed the standards for transplant. He was looking to us to sign forms if we were willing to receive a 'reconditioned' lung. Projecting into the not too distant future, he could see having lungs held in a 'bank' ready for use when the need arose, hence cutting out this dreadful waiting period. It would also of course increase the percentage of usable lungs, he felt, to 60%...quite a leap from 18%. All VERY exciting.

Reporting from the Monarch counting station here on Bay ST Toronto
correspondent Sandra Winter

Just some of my recent visitors!

So this is my Mom, Jeanne. She has just spent much of a month here with me in Toronto saving my bacon. I'd reached the bottom of my coping skills barrel when she came to my rescue. It isn't easy returning to olden days roles, a mom and a sick kid. But we managed very honourably, I think..Hope you do to Mom!

The bug that completely robbed me of by ability to fend for myself is nicely under control as of last week. So this week I've sent Mom home to recouperate...may take her a while. All 79 3/4 years of her made three meals a day, (to my specs), made the beds, did the laundry, was my hospital workout coach and evening tucker inner. Big job. Especially when I'm so ornery about how I want what where and when.

I've had lots of visitors along the way, many from down East. I'll write about some of that tomorrow. For today, I've used up my renewed energy but am ever so thankful that I have it to use up.

Bye for now
Sandra