Friday, October 24, 2014

Friday, October 24, 2014

Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2004. I will never forget this photo, EVER! I took this photo of Mattie at Butler's Orchard in Maryland on a field trip with his first preschool. The preschool was a nightmare, which was why there was no way I was going to let him go on a field trip without being one of the chaperones. It was a damp and rainy sort of day, yet we were out there in the pumpkin patch picking pumpkins! I snapped a photo of Mattie picking his pumpkin. The only good thing about this horrid school is it led me to Butler's Orchard. Which was a farm we took Mattie to often. In fact, our famous pumpkin photo of Mattie, that I posted below was also taken at Butler's Orchard! A photo I cherish!!!

Quote of the day: Not from my heart, for I have not forgotten. We are all the pieces of what we remember. We hold in ourselves the hopes and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss. ~ Cassandra Clare

Last night Peter and I were invited to join the International Confederation of Childhood Cancer Parent Organizations' (ICCCPO) reception dinner at the top of the CN Tower. The CN Tower is a total experience! I wasn't sure about going to this reception to be quite honest, but since we have been trapped in the conference hotel all the time, it is the one tourist thing we have done while in Toronto. So it was important we got out and saw this!

So what is this organization? Certainly their acronym is a pip and I notice no one pronounces it the same way either!!! ICCCPO's vision is to be recognized world-wide as the body representing families of children with cancer. ICCCPO wants to see a world where the issues faced by children with cancer and their families, both in the short and long-term, are understood by families, healthcare professionals  and the wider community to ensure that children receive the best possible care wherever they are in the world at the time of diagnosis and beyond.


The CN Tower was built in 1976 by Canadian National who wanted to demonstrate the strength of Canadian industry by building a tower taller than any other in the world. Building the CN Tower was a vast and ambitious project that involved 1,537 workers who worked 24 hours a day, five days a week for 40 months to completion. In 1995, the CN Tower was classified as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The CN Tower shares this designation with the Itaipu Dam on the Brazil/Paraguay border, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Panama Canal, the Chunnel under the English Channel, the North Sea Protection Works off the European coast, and the Empire State Building. Each year, over 1.5 million people visit Canada’s National Tower!

This is the "360 Restaurant" where the reception was held! It literally revolved around the city! We made several revolutions while dining last night. But in order to get up to this restaurant, we first had to take an elevator up that SPACE NEEDLE, up 1500 feet in the air! For those of you who know me, you know I don't particularly like motion, heights and so forth. But I did it!

Upon exiting the elevator we were greeted by VERY LOUD Pipers! I happen to love bag pipes, but these fellows were so loud you couldn't hear anything. I felt like I was back in college and literally I couldn't talk to the person next to me and believe me parents of children with cancer or bereaved parents like to talk to one another. So many of us were SUPER frustrated during the cocktail reception. But we managed in between songs to get words in edge wise!

This was some of the views during dinner! 

Peter and I met David and Avshalom! They are both from Israel. They run an organization (Hayim DSSN for Children with Cancer in Israel) which grants the gift of flying a plane to children with cancer. Literally a child can be a pilot for the day! Can you imagine if Mattie were alive?! I have a feeling he would have absolutely LOVED this experience. David lost his daughter 21 years ago and Avshalom lost his son 21 years ago to Ewings Sarcoma, a type of bone cancer. Both men met at the hospital. Their children were treated at the same time and that is how they met! It may be 21 years ago, but it was very clear to me that honoring their children was at the heart of their mission. Also from interacting with many of these parents, though their grief may not be raw anymore, their journey as I suspected is a life long one. Of course only a small percentage of those represented last night lost children, the others were parents of survivors. 

This group I title the unofficial "osteo" survivors club. Pictured with Peter and me are Edith and Ben. Edith heads up an organization in Argentina (Fundacion Natali Dafne Flexer) and Ben heads up an organization in South Africa (Olives South Africa). Both are parents who lost a child to osteosarcoma. In fact, Ben is the dad I mentioned in Wednesday's blog posting who addressed us from the audience after our presentation and told us about the loss of his only child to multifocal osteosarcoma.

Peter has had to take one conference call after the other today for work back at home! At some point we have worked from a hotel lounge on the 43 floor! This is the view from that floor and I thought it was worth capturing for the blog!