ENTERING THE SQUARED CIRCLE

At the Stroke Recovery Association of Calgary’s annual convention at the Coombs Theatre in the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary on Saturday, June 10^th Ron was bottom of the card. Thanks to the advice of locals, and thanks to the ride provided by Donna Hastings, who picked Ron and me up at the hotel and let us off at the front door of the hospital, I did not have to navigate, drive or park and we arrived with ample time to spare. The Foothills Medical Centre is undergoing massive re-construction and parking is a nightmare, particularly for people with disabilities. Some people I spoke to even questioned the wisdom of choosing the Coombs Theatre, the SRAC’s usual venue, for this year’s convention. Possibly a hockey rink might have been a better choice? suggested some.

By 10 am Ron had made his way down the stairs to the podium in the large lecture room and was seated at a table behind a microphone. Vicky Jones, the Association’s President, made her opening remarks, introduced Ron and the convention was officially under way. Ron’s audience was half the size of previous years. Given the parking situation, only 100 people were in the audience. 200 people is the norm, a number corroborated by the generous amount of food later provided at lunch.

            For the first time on the trip I was unable to hear Ron’s presentation. I was outside the theatre in the lobby seated behind a table displaying bookmarks and copies of The Defiant Mind. This table was next to one of two entrances to the theatre. The only time I was able to catch a peak inside was when late arrivals opened the doors to let themselves in. Ron must have been “on form” during his presentation because book sales throughout the day were brisk. Occasionally I would hear the sounds of rippling laughter, and at 10:45am it was impossible to miss the sirens and the announcement that FIRE ALARM TESTING IS NOW COMPLETE.

            However, as I mentioned, Ron was not the main event. The guest speaker with this honour was Bret “The Hit Man” Hart, famous in the international world of professional wrestling. He was due up on the SRAC’s card at 1pm, after lunch. Hart is also known as “King of the Ring” or “Master of the Squared Circle.” He has held the World Wrestling title (in some or all of its professional associations) seven times and numerous other championships over a span of five decades from the 1970’s to the 2010’s. The son of a famous, Calgary wrestling dynasty, he is well-known locally for his wrestling exploits and for his support and endorsement of the Calgary Hitmen, who play in the Central Division of the Western Hockey League.

What is not so well known is that Bret Hart suffered a stroke in 2002. Although he was completely paralyzed on his left side for a time, he was able to return to the ring in 2003 after recovering his ability to bench press 300 pounds. Yet he still suffers from the emotional after-effects of his stroke. The double doors to the lobby were twice thrown open when a gentleman from the audience came out and grabbed a handful of napkins left over from lunch to give to Hart to help him stem the tears that fell non-stop throughout his address. Ron attended and confirmed that Hart had given a heart-felt and moving speech.

For me, the most emotional part of the day came later in the afternoon when Ron and I met the husband of a woman who was a patient on the stroke ward in the hospital. Word of all the tasty treats, available FOR FREE in the lobby of the Coombs Theatre, had spread there and a couple of the nurses had come down to fill up trays to take upstairs for staff, family and patients. The husband appeared to be in his late forties and his wife was probably close to the same age when her stroke had hit a few weeks earlier, a stroke which had left her “locked in.” Even at the world’s foremost stroke treatment centre some strokes cannot be helped and they continue to take life-shattering tolls. After her stroke, the only parts of her body this woman was able to move were her eyes. With the help of a computer and her eyes she was able to communicate some of her needs and wants to her husband and to the therapists who daily move her legs and arms to keep her large muscle systems active. Her husband was hopeful that new discoveries in mind-machine interface (MMI) might soon be available to help his wife, particularly as her neurologist was about to head to Geneva for an international conference where the most up-to-date findings in this field would be shared.

All stroke stories are emotionally powerful, but this gentleman’s was the most moving Ron and I had ever listened to. The most beautiful description we have read of what it’s like to be “locked in” is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby. After his paralyzing stroke, Bauby dictated his memoir by blinking his left eyelid (his right was sewn shut) in response to the correct letter pointed to by a speech therapist using a French language frequency-ordered alphabet. The composition took ten months of four-hour daily sessions. Bauby would compose and memorize a passage during the night and dictate his text the following day. On March 6, 1997 the book was published. Bauby died three days later.

By 3 pm Ron and I were ready to leave. Thanks to a ride from Bev Culham, Manager of Health Promotion for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, we were able to arrive safe and dry at the hotel where our luggage was waiting for us at reception. Once behind the wheel of our trusty Toyota, luggage intact, I was able to navigate the twists and turns of the service road with all the savoir faire of a native Calgarian. Quickly out of the maze we found ourselves on TransCanada Number One, heading west. Even though we were late for a rendezvous in Canmore, with Dianne and Ron Deans, I drove slowly through the heavy traffic heading for the Rockies ― through the torrents of a downpour ― known by locals as The June Monsoon.