MARK FORSYTHE’S REVIEW

There are two new items of note: Mark Forsythe's review of The Defiant Mind has just appeared in the current issue of BC BOOKWORLD.

In addition to his review there is another interview with Ron available at:

http://worldstrokeorganization.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/stroke-survivor-stories-ron-smith.html

RAINBOW OVER GIBSON’S

On Wednesday, November 23, Ron gave a reading from The Defiant Mind at the Gibson’s Public Library. The reading started at 6 pm and was arranged by our friend and local resident, Michael Maser. Michael met us at the ferry, chauffeured us about, provided food and shelter, and the pleasure of the company of his wife, Lisa, and their dog, Chili. According to the Masers, Chili is the smartest dog in the world. When they ask him to open their front door, Chili raises one of his forepaws and pulls down the latch. When they ask him to close the door Chili simply wiggles his rump and pushes the door shut.       

One of the mysteries that I pondered during the many years that I lived on the waterfront of Nanoose Bay and looked across the strait to the Sechelt peninsula was: “why is that area called the Sunshine Coast?” While I and the residents of Nanoose Bay were soaked in sunshine, I would often observe dark rain clouds banked up against the mainland and I knew that Michael’s part of the coast was getting a soaking of a much different sort. When Michael met us at the ferry I immediately asked him about my meteorological observations. His answer was that, according to local lore, until the 1930’s, the area had been called the Rain Coast. (A logical name, I thought.) However, a prominent local realtor decided that this term was bad for business and he redubbed Sechelt the Sunshine Coast. For some perverse reason, the name has stuck.

The irony of this term is not lost on the indigenous population, many of whom, like Michael, are fungophiles. These hardy souls regularly don their waterproof gear, whistle for their dogs, and head into the forest to gather the mushrooms that abound there–chanterelles, oysters, lobsters, et al. (Yes, there really are oyster and lobster MUSHROOMS. I have tasted both kinds and they are fantastic.)

The Gibson’s Public Library is beautifully situated in the heart of downtown Gibson’s overlooking the waterfront and Molly’s Reach. The library was renovated during the summer and feels wonderfully fresh and clean. (In another life, I would like to be a librarian there.) At the moment Heather Evans-Cullen has this privilege and she welcomed Ron and me and Michael, and a small, but attentive audience of about ten people, to Ron’s reading. (The more readings that Ron does, the more confident he gets, and, by his own estimation, the Gibson’s reading was the best one he has given to date.) Normally the library closes at 7. On reading nights Heather keeps it open until 7:30 and by 7:45pm everyone has to leave before the security system engages.

The next morning Michael hosted a television interview with Ron. The interview took place in The MaryanneWest television studio at the Elphinstone Secondary School. The three cameras in the studio were “manned” by three of the students (Taylor, Lucas and Enriqua) who are taking the CPTV (cable production television) course at the school. The interview went “live to tape” at the control of Steve Sleep, the Producer of Coast Cable Community Television, who was outside in the Coast Cable truck. Unlike many BC communities, Sechelt still has a local broadcasting station and Ron and Michael’s interview will be shown on it a number of times over the coming weeks.

N.B. For those of you who might still be wondering about the origin of the title for this post, the rainbow (which I observed over Gibson’s from the Queen of Oak Bay on the day of Ron’s reading) was caused by the sunshine coming from Nanoose Bay. 

SUCCESSFUL BOOK LAUNCH IN VANCOUVER

On Wednesday evening, November 16 Ron returned to the scene of one of his boyhood haunts, the Dunbar Community Centre. Ron grew up in a house his Dad built near the intersection of 36^th Avenue and Crown Street, close to the University Endowment Lands–a magical place, filled with frog ponds, virgin forest, and the sound of tugboats on the Fraser River.

There were about forty people in the audience, some long-time friends, (I hesitate to say old) my brother, Bill, and my sister-in-law, Linda, some stroke survivors and many friends and family of people currently struggling to recover from a brain attack. A number of people who were in the audience had heard about the launch on the radio, on North by Northwest.

Ron Hatch of Ronsdale Press introduced Ron, who proceeded to read sections from The Defiant Mind interspersed with questions from the audience. At 8:30 pm the formal part of the evening ended. While Ron signed copies of his book, the majority of the group enjoyed the refreshments provided by Veronica Hatch, courtesy of Ronsdale Press.

At the end of the evening, Alan Twigg, founder and publisher of BC BookWorld took photos of the two Ronnies. These photos will NOT appear in the current issue of BC BookWord, which has just come out, but a wonderful review of The Defiant Mind written by Mark Forsythe DOES.

Thank you to all who participated, and to Meagan of Ronsdale Press for her continuing assistance.

THE JOURNEY OF A HERO

Stroke Services BC Rehabilitation Collaborative:

The Journey of a Hero

On November 14 & 15 at 8:50 in the morning, Ron opened both sessions of Stroke Collaborative #4 with a reading from The Defiant Mind. On Monday he read about consoling one of his fellow patients after a rehab session in Nanaimo. At the time, she was feeling extremely depressed because her rehab was not progressing as well as she expected: “Before the stroke I had two heart attacks,” she said. “Compared to this they were a piece of cake.” (If you would like to read the entire passage, turn to page 44).

On Tuesday Ron read the opening pages from Chapter 7, The Wheelchair and the Urinal, which describes his arrival in the Rehab Unit and his initial struggles with the male nurse who was trying to move him from a stretcher to the bed. “I was terrified. As soon as I was standing, my entire right side collapsed like an accordion. What was happening to me?

   “Relax,” he said. “You need to trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

   Trust. This was one of those words I would soon learn was critical to every phase of my recovery. Trust and the need to be brave.”

Both Ron and I, and all the other stroke survivors who participated in the sessions, (some in all four) came away heartened to know that the over 100 enthusiastic and dedicated medical practitioners from all parts of the province, from Terrace to the Kootenays, from Prince George to Penticton, from Vancouver  Island to the Fraser Valley, are returning to their Health Regions determined to retain the gains in best practices they have made to date, and committed to continuing to improve the rehabilitation of stroke patients. They intend to keep making the best use of the resources they have. In this endeavour they are led by a number of very special people: Pam Ramsay, Cheryl Mitchell and Katie White.

Kudos to all the participants!

Letter from THE WORLD STROKE ORGANIZATION

Who knew that "housekeeping" could turn up so many treasures? I do have the Certificate referred to in the letter, but I don't know how to reproduce it here. And I don't know if the links will work, but, anyone interested in the exhibits should have all the info needed to seek them out.

  

Dear SMITH RON,

Enclosed please find a certificate honoring your inspiring contribution to the Stroke Hobbies 2016 project. It provides a vibrant example of the statement that "There is life after stroke" and even latent creative talents can be discovered.

If you would prefer to receive a hard copy, please provide your postal address to enable us to expedite delivery.

The combined exhibition of the works is available in an e-book format and a film, which was screened throughout the World Stroke Congress in Hyderabad on 26-29 October 2016.  You can find the Hobbies Exhibition E-book here and the film here. Appropriate social media have been utilized its distribution.

Wishing you health and continued creativity.
Professor Stephen Davis                                Professor Natan Bornstein


President WSO                                   Vice President WSO 

RIDING THE WILD HORSE, MEMORY

This morning I was "house-cleaning" my Word Documents and made the following discovery-the review of Ron's book which was published in the Vancouver Sun and 5 other major Canadian papers in September 2016 . Since it was published before I began this blog I thought I should reproduce it now for those who might have missed it.

 Riding the Wild Horse, Memory

Ron Smith, The Defiant Mind: Living Inside A Stroke

(Ronsdale Press, 2016, 313 pages, $22.95)

Two years ago my father-in-law had a stroke. One day he was fine, talkative, alert and chuffed by his recent prowess at the curling rink. The next morning as he ate breakfast, he began to talk gibberish and was rushed to the hospital. Several small strokes ensued. He never recovered his ability to explain what was going on inside during those heart-breaking final days, a terrifying situation for him and for his loved-ones. Even his wife, a trained nurse, knew little about the workings of a brain shattered by stroke. If we had read Ron Smith’s The Defiant Mind: Living Inside A Stroke, I think we might all have responded differently.

            The cover painting, Jack Shadbolt’s “Bursting Orb,” perfectly evokes the central message of this important literary memoir, that a stroke is not just about physical damage, loss of speech, motor skills, even the capacity to swallow; it’s equally, or perhaps more importantly, about what is happening in and to the mind that experiences such trauma.

            “Was that really me speaking I wondered. It was my voice, it sounded a lot like an old 78 phonograph record spinning at 331/3 rpm. The words rolled and bounced around the room like tumbleweed blown on a desert wind. They had no traction, no weight, no body. No meaning. And yet they seemed heavy and thick at the same time. Like toffee or treacle.”

            Smith’s sense of humour and gift of metaphor makes this frightening journey into uncharted waters not only instructive, but also very engaging, a work that everyone should red, not only because a quarter of us will suffer a stroke by the age of 80, or be closely associated with someone who has, but also because it’s so damn well written.

This book documents loss, confusion, grief and longing, but it’s also about a bloody-minded determination to understand the cognitive damage suffered and how that understanding might be crucial to whatever healing and recovery are possible. What seems to Smith the most reliable compass for rediscovering who he is or was turns out to be memory. This is no pleasant stroll down memory lane. Instead, with his body half-paralyzed and senses hyper-alert, Smith rides the wild horse of memory, hanging on for dear life, grabbing hold of unexpected moments from his past, patching together what he can of a lost identity, a Catch-22 process because acknowledging the difference between past and present selves can also be extremely debilitating.

As a writer of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, this must have seemed to Smith very much like the creative process itself, which Joseph Conrad described as rescue work, “snatching the vanishing fragments of memory and giving them the permanence of art.” And, indeed, what he has achieved in this epic endeavour—not just dredging the past, but analysing, processing and recording it all on the computer with the index finger of his left hand—is no small miracle; indeed, it’s a tribute to the human will and imagination.

Every stroke is different, Smith insists, all the more reason why attention needs to be paid to what is happening to the mind whose “executive function” has been damaged. “Everyone could see the physical damage I’d suffered and they clearly had some idea of how best to deal with it, but no one appeared to be the least bit interested in my mental state of being. No one asked what my thoughts were or where they led. No one questioned me about the landscape and atmosphere of the stroke world. No one wanted to know its secrets.” Happily, with the help of this beautiful, moving and resourceful book, all that could begin to change.

Ron Smith has re-learned how to speak, write, walk, even swallow his favourite treat—apple sauce—but the one thing he refuses to swallow is the idea of giving up.

Gary Geddes is the author of The Resumption of Play and the forthcoming Medicine Unbundled: Dispatches from the Indigenous frontlines.

UNEXPURGATED INTERVIEW NOW ON PODCAST!

For those of you who missed the shortened North by Northwest interview live on CBC radio last Saturday, November 12, the entire, uncensored conversation between Sheryl MacKay and Ron Smith is now available. To access the podcast simply google  CBC radio/nxnw and scroll to Saturday, November 12. If you wish to skip the trumpeter swans and the fulsome figures of speech, you can fast forward to 16 minutes and start your play at that spot. 

According to Sheryl the interview has generated many e-mails to the show, reaffirming her (previously unpublished) comment to Ron: "I'm so glad you wrote this book."

NORTH by NORTHWEST

Ron's interview with Sheryl MacKay is scheduled for Saturday, November 12, just after the 7:30am news.

DOUBLE TAKES – TAKE TWO

Can you remember? Way back to October 20, 2016, and that beautiful, sunny drive to Victoria? Well, Ron was scheduled to do two interviews in the Victoria offices of the CBC that day. The first was with Gregor Craigie for On The Island and the second was with Sheryl MacKay for North by Northwest.

To do the interview with Sheryl, Ron was ushered into a second studio for a 2 PM taping. This room was much smaller, with no window, and more black soundproofing all about. There was a large instrument board with dials, a desk chair in front of the board, and a single microphone dropping down to mouth height from above. Ron sat down in the chair and donned a pair of ear phones. I was given a stool on the side of the “cockpit,” a pair of earphones and a plug in jack for my head set so that I might hear what Sheryl had to say. Ron had done a couple of interviews with Sheryl in the past so he did not feel as if he were going to be talking to a stranger.

Unfortunately, as this was a remote interview and I did not get to see Sheryl, I am unable to report if she is taller, slimmer and handsomer than she used to be. I do know that her voice sounded as silky and sultry as ever. Ron and Sheryl talked for almost forty-five minutes, with a brief interruption by a young man who had to do a live news broadcast at 2:30 PM. When he left, Ron and Sheryl continued their conversation. The edited version of their talk is supposed to air sometime this weekend on North by Northwest, on Saturday or Sunday, at some time between 6 AM and 9 AM. However, today, being Remembrance Day, it is also a holiday, so I cannot be more precise about the day or the time of the interview. No doubt it will be available as a podcast and I will post the details when I have them.

Stay tuned.

BOOK LAUNCH in VANCOUVER, NOV.16