Tuesday, July 17, 2007
You're Invited...
The invitations are in the mail. It seems like it has been a long time coming but they are signed, sealed and will be delivered to your door in the next few days...so check your mailbox!! (if you haven't already received it!) I look forward to hearing back from all of you.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Making the News...
Just after my mother passed away I recieved a phone call from a woman at the Toronto star. She had read my mother's obituary & was interested by it. She wondered if there was a story there. We chatted a bit. I told her a few things about my mom and she said she would be in touch. A week or two went by and we met at Peel Memorial Hospital to do an interview. She talked to some of the nurses that looked after Mom at treatment and then her & I chatted away about my mom. The result is the article below. I hope you enjoy it. I think she would be very proud of it.
DORIS BROADBRIDGE
She found inspiration in illness
Doris Broadbridge had been depressed for the past 10 years. Her two girls were grown, she'd taken early retirement from her job at a warehouse and most of all, her marriage to Gord, the love of her life since grade school, had lost its spark.
Then last October she was told she had colon cancer and six to eight months to live without treatment or – maybe –18 months with.
It was as if she had already done all her grieving. Broadbridge couldn't wait to start her treatment. She threw away her antidepressants and two weeks later strode into Brampton's William Osler hospital with a big smile on her face.
"With her cancer diagnosis she did a 360," said daughter Heather Broadbridge. "Many people said she was an inspiration."
"She was a real sweetie, always had a joke going," said Suzanne Lewis, a nurse who Broadbridge teased by calling her Shrek whenever she wore her green uniform.
In February, Broadbridge learned she hadn't responded to her first round of chemo and needed different treatment. And on March 4, her husband died three days after being suddenly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
She was devastated, but fought to stay focused and kept smiling.
There was only one topic she wouldn't discuss. She refused to allow Heather to move up her Sept. 29 wedding to Jeff Longtin. "I'm going to be there," she said.
Raised in Toronto, Doris Procter married Gord Broadbridge a few years after she graduated from George Harvey secondary school. Both loved music – he played in the Toronto Signals, a military band, and in a weekend bar band called the Over the Hill Mob, and they both sang with the Drum Corps Alumni Toronto Chorus.
The young couple lived in Toronto and Aurora before moving to Brampton, where they raised their family.
Broadbridge's daughters took turns staying with her in the family's home while she was ill. Even though she had trouble walking to her mailbox, she now believed the quality of her life was better than it had been before.
She adored her grandchildren – daughter Marlene's kids – and was excited about Heather's wedding. She even saw her daughter in her wedding dress – "she had a huge grin on her face," Heather remembers. But she won't be at the wedding. Broadbridge, 60, died May 11.
Heather is dedicating her wedding to her mother. "Anything my mother knows about – cake, flowers, florist – will not change," she said. "Everything in my wedding is from the heart."
cdunphy@thestar.ca
DORIS BROADBRIDGE
She found inspiration in illness
Doris Broadbridge had been depressed for the past 10 years. Her two girls were grown, she'd taken early retirement from her job at a warehouse and most of all, her marriage to Gord, the love of her life since grade school, had lost its spark.
Then last October she was told she had colon cancer and six to eight months to live without treatment or – maybe –18 months with.
It was as if she had already done all her grieving. Broadbridge couldn't wait to start her treatment. She threw away her antidepressants and two weeks later strode into Brampton's William Osler hospital with a big smile on her face.
"With her cancer diagnosis she did a 360," said daughter Heather Broadbridge. "Many people said she was an inspiration."
"She was a real sweetie, always had a joke going," said Suzanne Lewis, a nurse who Broadbridge teased by calling her Shrek whenever she wore her green uniform.
In February, Broadbridge learned she hadn't responded to her first round of chemo and needed different treatment. And on March 4, her husband died three days after being suddenly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
She was devastated, but fought to stay focused and kept smiling.
There was only one topic she wouldn't discuss. She refused to allow Heather to move up her Sept. 29 wedding to Jeff Longtin. "I'm going to be there," she said.
Raised in Toronto, Doris Procter married Gord Broadbridge a few years after she graduated from George Harvey secondary school. Both loved music – he played in the Toronto Signals, a military band, and in a weekend bar band called the Over the Hill Mob, and they both sang with the Drum Corps Alumni Toronto Chorus.
The young couple lived in Toronto and Aurora before moving to Brampton, where they raised their family.
Broadbridge's daughters took turns staying with her in the family's home while she was ill. Even though she had trouble walking to her mailbox, she now believed the quality of her life was better than it had been before.
She adored her grandchildren – daughter Marlene's kids – and was excited about Heather's wedding. She even saw her daughter in her wedding dress – "she had a huge grin on her face," Heather remembers. But she won't be at the wedding. Broadbridge, 60, died May 11.
Heather is dedicating her wedding to her mother. "Anything my mother knows about – cake, flowers, florist – will not change," she said. "Everything in my wedding is from the heart."
cdunphy@thestar.ca