I am in a novel writing class … now don’t laugh! My stroke removed all of the words I had ( I couldn’t even write, read or think) but 6 years back from a stroke I WANT to write a novel. It’s hard, so …
… I am in a novel writing class. I began in September 20th and I made it to 4 classes. I handing in my piece of work on time and wrote on thing on paper for “the dream”. It is the major character having a dream. Not to worry, I had the major character in the novel as a robot and I couldn’t see what kind of dream he has. So I completed it as ‘Life vs Dream’ and he sank in water.
Right next to my townhouse, there is a trail that goes down to a park. First, we went to Serena Gundy Park. It’s quiet but you could hear all the noise filtering down – traffic noise from Eglinton and Leslie Street.
It’s quite small and was joined to the parks by a bridge across the river. Sunnybrook Park and Wilket Creek Park were the next parks to do but instead, we wandered down to Ernest Thompson Seton Park which was down the river bit beside one of the train tracks.
In Ernest Thompson Seton Park they had eighteen Frisbee holes with each one having a start plate and a finish. Dan, my daughter boyfriend that I talked to Wednesday, was quite willing to give me all of the information I needed as he plays Frisbee golf with his team.
We made it past the Overlea Bldg Bridge, with its legs extending into the park as it goes overhead, and into the Thorncliffe area. Up, out of the park we came, and set off to my place.
It was a really nice walk – cool but yet warm, sunny but cloudy and the trees were orange, red and yellow. It had all the things that we were expecting on a fall walk.
So Happy Thanksgiving for all you people who aren’t American. It is very nice to have the holiday early instead of the American Thanksgiving, so close to Christmas …
I went downtown to Sultan’s Tent Restaurant, Front Street, to see belly dancing. Have you ever been there? We got there rather late; a reservation for 10:30 pm and the dancing began it 11:00 pm. It was fun. There were so many ladies there – brides and birthdays – and they all got up with the dancers to belly dance!
I love my townhouse! – kitchen, a living room, a dining room, 2 bathrooms, a master bedroom, and one OFFICE! I can’t believe that. It’s way back, my office is, and it has one window. Every morning I go onto my office and I work there until noon; doing my web design and answering emails.
There’s trees all around my office but one of my favorites trees is yellow. It’s autumn of course… I was watching a robin sit on the fence: s/he stares up at me and I stared at her/him, and a woodpecker too, tap, tap tapping on the trees. I haven’t seen birds since I moved to the apartment, apart from seagulls and starlings. One day, I was watching a raccoon sleep on my balcony!
I have moved from the apartment in the sky to a townhouse on the second floor. I am feeling so-o good about it! It’s been terrible, of course; 5 days of packing up. The movers were here and I go on unpacking …
I decided to blog in March 2011 after my daughter and her boyfriend felt I had so mach to say about the things I do to Toronto; I’m always busy. I wrote about people, places and events that I attended in Toronto. I had a blog but eventually I changed it using WordPress to make in into one big website. You can see it; blog = LifeFocus and photography = Jen Photo Art.
I wrote all about Toronto and stuff I did in it … I’ll probably do that still. My LifeFocus.ca website is something beyond that… it is life, relationships, nature and all that.
LifeFocus.ca is my my website. I’ve had it for a couple of years … Since 2000. For the first 6 years, I made it a Performance Coaching website.
In the last 7 years, I had a stroke in London. It was bad. I was just surviving! I lay in hospital, curled up in bed. My right side, all the way down, was numb and heavy from loss of feeling. I rolled over, and my right side flopped beside me. My head was pounding. My face was swollen on the right side; I could feel the stitches in my mouth along the back teeth and, again, my face was cut beside the eye. I was attached to a catheter. They removed it eventually but they wouldn’t allow me to get up.
I didn’t know what had happen to me except that I had had a stroke. I lay there feeling silent; there were no thoughts in my head that I was aware of. I woke up and it was night; I woke up and it was day… after day after day after day and I didn’t have any thoughts about it.
Aphasia: this is an inability to produce speech (I talked in gibberish; I understood a bit of what I wanted to say, I just couldn’t produce it). I had trouble understanding language. I couldn’t read except for the titles in the newspaper and those didn’t make sense to me. Also my sense of smell, taste and vision were impaired and my balance problems, trouble walking, and loss of balance and coordination were plaguing me.
I spent two months in Parkwood Hospital getting out just before Christmas. I rode in a wheelchair a bit through the first month and had speech, occupational and physiotherapy. In speech therapy when asked for a word, I knew what the thing was but I searched my brain for it and didn’t come up with it; it was blank! We went through animals, furniture, eating and the climate outside. Still, it remained a mystery. In physiotherapy, I was learning to walk, turn circles and climb stairs; all on my limp leg. Everything that was 10 feet away seemed impossible.
In occupational therapy, I learned about about puzzles and about cheques … how weird! Putting all the important information in and working with my left hand. It’s harder with numbers, times and dates! I’ve struggled with that one … even now!
Four years it’s taken me to feel like I belong here and eventually, three years ago, I moved from London to Toronto. I feel very centered and focused; I love Toronto! I started walking rather than driving. I walked everywhere, up the stairs and down to the subway; it became easier and easier. I move with joy!
To behave normally, I laugh when I’m amused, and I say things that need saying in my world. No one notices that I hesitate when I’m speaking; nobody even knows that I had a stroke. I’m interested to read and write and to fit in with the world. I join in conversations.
And so LifeFocus.ca has become my website … again! Recently I’ve learned to use WordPress; it is terrific! I have been studying WordPress at George Brown College and I have adopted it because it makes so-o much sense for my blog …