An Evening of Possibility - November 23, 2009
T. Muir Remarks
Welcome & Thank You
Thank you Beverly, and good evening Ladies and Gentlemen.
Welcome to Canada’s largest children’s rehabilitation and complex continuing care teaching hospital.
Bloorview Kids Rehab is well on its way to becoming the global leader in the field of childhood disability care, research and education.
Thank you for attending our third annual “An Evening of Possibilities”.
I would like to say a special thank you to our two “Evening of Possibilities” Co-Chairs, George Lewis and David Allgood of the Royal Bank of Canada, and to the irrepressible Yannick and David of Nota Bene Restaurant, for their tremendous contributions to making this evening such a success.
Parent Perspective
No matter how it comes to be that a family includes a child with a disability, the beginning is always traumatic and painful.
The changes to our lives do not come upon us slowly, gently, and well within our control.
The changes come suddenly, abruptly, within hours, sometimes moments - the course of our lives turned upside down and inside out.
In one swift, undeniable stroke, the illusion that we are in control vanishes.
The grief that we experience as parents lives deep within us, and becomes like the wind.
It comes and goes like gusts of cold, biting winter wind air.
It can happen anywhere. It can happen anytime.
We can’t choose the moments when the fabric of everyday life tears apart and we feel that first anguishing pain afresh.
Most people perform well in a crisis. Crises present situations in which we perform well because the choices are clear-cut and the need to act is compelling.
But the block-and-tackle of everyday life can be very different. It is then that our spirit is most apt to falter, when the emotions that normally propel us forward can fade and be replaced by weariness.
So what do we do as parents when it is our courage that begins to fail?
I can tell you what my wife, Patricia, and I did, and what our daughter, Lauren, who is 20 years old now, would help us do.
No matter how difficult it could sometimes be, we would find a way to step back, to take ourselves out of the picture, if even just for a few moments or hours. And we would take a fresh, hard look at our son, Christopher.
We would think about the emotional trauma that he has had to endure, and the courage he has had to display, in order to find his place in the world around him.
We would remind ourselves that not even we, who are so close to him and love him so much, can really know what it takes for him to accomplish just the basic tasks and responsibilities of every day life.
And with all this reflection, our batteries would inevitably recharge, and we would pull our attitude back into the positive.
Attitude
Attitude. Attitude is everything. You have to believe. You have to have hope. If you don’t believe, if you don’t have hope, you cannot put in the effort that is necessary for positive advancement.
Outcomes can be changed through the sheer force of positive attitude and hope.
Christopher
Christopher, who is a happy, thriving 18 year-old, was diagnosed at the age of 18 months with a global developmental disability.
What was most difficult and stressful in his early years was his very significantly delayed language and communication skills.
Chris attended Bloorview’s highly acclaimed the Play and Learn Nursery School for children with special needs.
We’ll always remember going through a period of time when Chris began making strange, almost self-injurious hand actions. The most troubling was repeatedly hitting his mouth.
It turned out that his speech-language pathologist at Play and Learn had begun teaching Chris ‘sign language’. What he had been telling us was that he was ‘mad’ and ‘hungry’ and that it was ‘time’ to ‘eat’!
Over a three-year period, with Play and Learn’s leadership, our parental encouragement and Chris’ innate determination, he made tremendous strides in his sign communication skills.
Bloorview Kids Rehab
Unfortunately, for many children with disabilities, the inner part of them remains hidden and locked inside them – sometimes physically, sometimes emotionally.
Bloorview Kids Rehab finds it totally unacceptable for the hopes - the dreams - the desires of any child to be locked-in as a result of their his or her disability. Failures of imagination, or traditional ways of doing things, cannot be allowed to dictate the adverse impacts of a disability on a child’s life.
When parents bring their child to Bloorview, they can expect to get an awful lot of attitude.
The “Bloorview attitude” is rooted in a deep reverence and respect for every child, a fascination with their growth and development, and a belief that all children deserve to participate fully in life.
Prosthetic designer Bill Johnson puts it this way: “The first thing I ask when I meet a new client, the very first thing, is this: If I could wave a magic wand, and could make anything, what would you like it to do for you?”
Bloorview’s technicians, clinicians and scientists, in deed all of its employees and volunteers, are bound together by a magical and evolving culture of insatiable curiosity and unbounded imagination, which is resulting in breakthrough discoveries of new treatments and new technologies for improving the lives of children with disabilities.
Bloorview instills its clients with a vigorous sense of self-confidence, dignity and hope for their future.
This is the attitude - this is the spirit - this is the sole of Bloorview Kids Rehab.
Once again, and on behalf of the entire Bloorview family, thank you for attending “An Evening of Possibilities”.
Justin Hines
I now have the distinct pleasure of introducing a very special guest this evening - Justin Hines.
Justin is an internationally renowned singer-songwriter and a proud Bloorview Ambassador. Justin is a former client of Bloorview whose inspiring music exemplifies Bloorview’s vision of creating a world of possibility for children with disabilities.
Ladies and Gentleman, please welcome Justin Hines.
There is a relentless westerly wind that blows through Georgian Bay.
It has blown for eons, scraping the soil from the land and exposing the bare rock.
It causes trees to grow at an angle.
People who live in Georgian Bay have reached an accommodation with the wind; they have learned to live with it.
For a child with a disability and their family, life is lived facing a relentless, stiff west wind.
It permeates their existence, altering the topography of their days.
It causes their lives to grow at an angle.
Without judging the wind as good or bad, we can observe the truth of it, acknowledge the force of it and learn to live with it.
And we can learn to appreciate the beauty of those trees growing at an angle.
