Category Archives: Life

Book Faeries

By Richard | Published April 27, 2013

Her name was Bethany. I think we were destined to meet. After my mother died — I had been Connie’s caregiver for 13 years – we were living hand-to-mouth. I was debilitated by daily migraines, and largely unable to work, so we could not afford a city rent. We packed our bags for a small [...]

Also posted in Books, Nova Scotia | 3 Comments

Six Months

By Richard | Published February 6, 2013
2 Comments

Gratitude

By Richard | Published October 23, 2012

Independence is easy. Anyone can walk through this world alone, without a care, unconcerned with the suffering of others, only looking out for number one. In a world where no one matters, it’s so easy to be selfish, so easy to be callous. So easy to ignore the obvious. So easy to turn away from [...]

Also posted in Family, Wall-E—The Neuroendocrine Tumor | Leave a comment

Ob La Di

By Richard | Published October 15, 2012
1 Comment

Bittersweet

By Richard | Published September 5, 2012

Circumstances being what they were, I didn’t see my baby sister in person until Canada Day. Almost seven months after we’d last held hands and cried together. I knew immediately that her life was measured in weeks and days and hours and minutes. And I was pissed at the cancer clinic in Arizona that took [...]

Also posted in Writing | 3 Comments

Softness

By Richard | Published August 12, 2012

It ended peacefully, the room as soft as a eiderdown. My little sister, Marilou Levangie, left this world a week ago Monday, as the love of her life held her right hand, and her nearest sibling held her left, each telling her that it was okay to let go. “Batman and Robin, together again,” Brian [...]

Also posted in Family | 3 Comments

Grace

By Richard | Published July 21, 2012

I was with her this morning, holding her hand when she joined me, lucid for a few moments. She started crying. I have so much pain, she said. I’ll call the nurse, and she’ll give you something to take the pain away. I am so afraid, she said. It’s okay, sweetheart. Give your fears to [...]

18 Comments

Expecto Patronum!

By Richard | Published July 10, 2012

I’m a Drama Queen. An Academy Award-winning Drama Queen. When something is bothering me, and I can’t figure out what that something might be, I just throw everything into a pot and stir it all up. I deliberately make everything as bad as it possibly can be. I call forth the Dementors from Azkaban. I [...]

Also posted in Pity Party, Wall-E—The Neuroendocrine Tumor | 3 Comments

You Win Some, You Lose Some

By Richard | Published July 4, 2012

My mother delighted in telling everyone that I was a know-it-all — a highly-educated pain in the ass. In the complicated way that families are, she seemed so gleeful when circumstances knocked me on my keester. I wonder what she would say to me now that I’ve learned that I was right, and a legion [...]

Also posted in Pity Party, Wall-E—The Neuroendocrine Tumor | 4 Comments

Top 10 Reasons to Think You Might Have Diabetes Insipidus

By Richard | Published April 29, 2012

10. You don’t bother putting the toilet seat down after peeing because you’re certain you’ll be the next person using it. 9. You fill up a blue bag with recyclables from the backseat of your car. 8. You plan every trip by noting the destination’s access to clean public washrooms. If there isn’t a place [...]

Also posted in Humor, Wall-E—The Neuroendocrine Tumor | 12 Comments