1996 - 64 The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May | Bene rvakc an -ERRACE: STAND: INSIDE COMMUNITY SECTION B EVENTS B2 REG HORNE ‘Name’ your price NE OF THE nice things about living in Terrace is that I haven’t met another Reg Horne. A few years ago when 1 moved to a new city, I bought a house and took out the required insurance at a neigh- bourhood insurance agency. As J still had some moncy left from the sale of my pre- vious house, T paid the premium in full when I took out the policy. Imagine my surprise about six weeks later to receive a nasty letter from my in- Surance agent telling me to pay up. I walked over to the office receipt in hand and asked whal was going on. The woman behind the desk pulled out a file. It had my name on it and the payment was over- due. But looking at the file upside down across the counter, I saw that the address was wrong. They had another client with my name, Once I pointed this aut, every- one was much friendlier, A few weeks later, I was at my local bank trying to cash a cheque. They asked for identification of course since I was a new client, but the process seemed to take forever. Eventually the woman came back and J asked her what the delay was about. | Yes, they had another client with my name, probably the same puy who had not paid his insurance bill because he did not have a good credit standing at the bank ei- ther. I was not surprised by this. Indeed, I was reminded of the time before we were marricd when my wife and J] had a joint account al a bank and they had deposited her salary into the account of someone with her maiden name. rather than into ours. That little mistake led to considerable embarrassment for me when I practically forced someone to take a rather large che- que from me which immediately bounced “as high as the missing four months’ pay, On the bright side, this did lead to my dis- covering the error which the bank had made and to us being treated with first class service from then on. He was furious, He said that he was Reg Horne and he had been in town first, implying that I would have to change my name or leave. I think we left it at that. Frankly, | was glad to sell the above mentioned house and move to yet another community, Until the day I received an irale phone call from a man who informed me that his name was Reg Home and he was sick and tired of my students calling him at two in the moming. He demanded that I post my phone num- ber up all over the university so people would siop phoning him by mistake. I told him thal ] would not be doing that as I did not wanl to receive phone calls at two in the morning either, although I know that no student would be fool enough to call me up al two in the morning anyway. He was furious. He said that he was Reg Home and he had been in town first, im- plying that ] would have to change my name or leave. I think we left it al that, Several wecks later, I read in the news- paper that Reg Home, who was in his eighties, had passed away. Maybe it was all those sleepless nights. Anyway, I had 1o put up with a lot of comments that day at work like, “you look pretty good for somcone who’s dead.”’ I felt like Tom Sawyer. So, since moving to Terrace, although I have been asked if I am related to the Mr. Horne who lives in Kilimat, no one has claimed to be me, and for that Tam most thankful. By CRIS LEYKAUF MOST TEENS HOPE for a com- puter, maybe even a car when they graduate from high school. Doncll Iamele will be getting a much different gift when she graduates next year. She'll be get- ting her father’s kidney. Since fall last year, Donel! has spenl nearly half of every day hooked up to a dialysis machine. But to look at her or to talk with ber you wouldn't think she’s any- thing but a normal teen, Donell keeps her grades up, has a part time job, and still finds time to spend with her horse Peeler. However, when most kids stay up late on weekends, watching movies with friends or at partics, Donell is home by 10:30 at night, seven nights a week for treat- ment. For ten and a half hours, providing there are no problems, a machine flushes the wastes out of her body, via a catheter tube which is implanied in her stomach. “TCs like a curfew,’’ she ex- plains. And she barely notices the tube anymore. It’s fairly small, and she hides it beneath the waistband of her jeans. “Sometimes it gets sore if I hit it,’’ she explains, Most 16-year-olds would prob- ably move out if you asked to go to bed by 10:30 every night. Hav- ing a tube in their stomach? Not playing contact sports? Add on top of that a strict diet with no sall, (and no pickles, Donell’s favourite), That’s asking too much, you'd think. “I wasn’t very accepting at first. I kept saying, it’s not me, Pm not sick.’’ That was definitely Donell’s opinion when she first learned she had kidney failure. Last summer she started com- plaining of headaches. Early blood tests discovered she was anemic, then a pediatrician told her it was probably her kidneys, After a week of tests she was told she needed to begin dialysis. Because Terrace is a more isola- ted community, there was only one choice of dialysis for her. “YT wasn'l very accepting at first,’ Donell says, ‘I kept saying, it’s not me. I'm not sick.’’ In order to help her accept what was happening, Donell’s doctor at Children’s Hospital in Van- couver, tried to introduce her to other kids her age who were going through the same thing. **At first ] didn’t want to meet anybody,’’ she says, Now when Donell talks about dialysis and the frequent check ups she constantly refers to other teens she’s met in the hospital. Last fall Donell had the opera- tion which placed a catheter in her stomach. It didn’t go well, and she was forced to stay in the hospital for a month, as doctors re-inserted the tube, COMMUN | TY On dialysis — a t IN BETWEEN working part time, going to school, taking correspondence and being on dialysis, Donnel lamele tries to squeeze in as much time as possible with her horse Peeler. She's planning to delay her kidney transplant operation for a year, so she'll be able to ride him this summer. Otherwise, she'd have ta spend most of the summer in the hospital, It was a difficult month for Donell. She's only recently got- ten Peeler — ihe first horse she’s ever owned. As well as the month away from him, it took some time before she was healthy enough to tide again. . Now she’s up on horseback, and while she's not allowed to jump, she can at least canter. It’s a bit risky, but Donell’s willing to take the chance, “My mom doesn’t Tike to watch me ride,”’ she confesses. She’s managed io keep her grades up al school, although she has to miss the first class of the day because of dialysis, To keep up she’s taking correspondence so shell be able to graduate on time, However, Donell thinks herself fairly lucky because her family, friends, boyfriend and even her boss have been very supportive of her. met friends keep an eye on ” she says. ‘“They bug me ifT eat something wrong’? She and her boyfriend recently celebrated the one-year anniver- sary of their first date, Aside from the strict 10:30 p.m. curfew, he’s told Donell that her being on dialysis doesn’t bother him at all. “‘He’s even learned how to spike the bags and put tubes in them,”’ she says, describing her nighily routine as she is hooked up to the dialysis machine. For now Donell plans to con- tinue with dialysis, Now that her father’s been found to be a com- patible donor, she could have the Kidney transplant operation this summer, and be rcady for grade 12 by the fall. But that would mean giving up the whole summer with Pecler. And after what’s happened to her over the last cight months, she wants that summer. Yet she calls herself lucky. “A lot of people get really sick before they find out they have kidney failure,” she says. And she has a donor alrcady lined up. Some of the 350 British Colum- bians each year who leam they have kidney failure aren't as lucky. The majority of people with kidney failure need to wait for a kidney from an organ donor who has recently died, says the Kidney Foundation of Canada, The organization urges people to become organ donors by pul- ting an organ donor sticker. on their Care Card or driver's’ li- cense, and talk lo the family about their wishes, With a stroke of a brush SKEENA JR. Secondary Art 10 students spent part of their free time last week transform- ing the school's lunch roam. Here Stacey Soleski paints part of the city scape. The students chose to do a Paris cafe scene, since the mural is located in the cafeteria. No one’s sure how long stu- dents will be able to enjoy the mural, since the province plans to replace the aging high school with a new building.