INSIDE
COMMUNITY
EVENTS B2

WHAT?
CHARLYNN TOEWS

A bag of
tomatoes

HEN WE lived in Terrace for the
first time, in 1988, I worked at the
Terrace Review as a general assign-
ment news reporter, One time the
editor, Michael Kelly, told me to go cover a
ninety-second birthday party. I said, ‘Oh! Well,
Td better hurry or [Il miss the whole thing!”’

Another time I was to interview some award-
winning students up at the college. I was
delayed because ] had bumped into Judy Tracy,
who had given me a whole bagful of the most
delicious food on the entire planet: home-grown
tomatoes, vine-ripened, still warm from the sun.

So I rushed to the office to grab my stuff off
my desk — my notes, research, pen, film,
camera — and jumped into my big red truck
and raced up the hill to the college. I was up on
the bench already When I looked down at my
passenger seat and saw that I had left my
camera and film on my desk, because what ]
saw on (he car seat was my notes, research, pen,

"and a bag of tomatoes,

So | had to turn around and go back down and
be even more late, but at least I got to say, when
I reappeared in the office to make the switch,
“You can’t take a picture with a bag of
tomatoes.”’

Then we moved to Halifax, and just when we
had enough friends to have a good-sized good-
bye parly, we moved back. This takes about
three years, I have found. It was so sad, too, be-
cause right at this time of year, it was late Au-

~gust, my balcony container garden was just
ready to start harvesting. I think I had eaten at
most two ripe tomatoes from the now robust
plants I had raised from seed.

Whenever I think of that apartment in Dart-
mouth, facing the harbour and a small park, I re-
member the smell of new tomato seedlings. We
cheated nature with a south-facing bank of
windows, enjoying the smell of summer in
March.

I gave every single one of those ripening
tomato plants, and the big nice pots they were
in, to my friend Warehouse Carol, a feliow
container-gardener. She was terribly, terribly
happy to receive such a gift, of course, as happy
as I was sad to be leaving friends and tomatoes
just when they were getting good.

But then the first person I saw in Terrace, |
mean the day we drove in from across the coun-
try, was Judy Tracy. She recognized my big red
truck and waved like mad. Then the next day,
like magic, at my first day of work at the
women’s centre, ] saw she had left me a bag of
tomatoes,

Iam pretty sure that I cried.

Amazingly enough, my first letter at our new
place in Terrace was from Warehouse Carol. I
wish I could show it to you now: she had drawn
an elaborate border of tomatoes on the vine,

beautifully executed in red and green felt pens,
She wrote in generous detail how delicious the
tomatoes were.

ButI knew how good they were because ] had
eaten them. I hadn’t given them up, after all,
They. were handed to me as soon as 1 got to Ter-
race.

This makes me terribly terribly happy, I’m not
sure exactly why.

kekkk

Your questions answered

Dear What?
What is your analysis of Peter Pan?
Wondering

Dear Wondering,

The crocodile is a memento mori (reminder of
death), obviously: tick, tock. ‘Tick tock,’’ be
says to evil Captain Hook, appetized by the
pirate's delicious left hand and hungry for the
rest of him. The alarm clock that Hook fed the
crocodile gives him warning, but listen to a
clock yourself: do you hear the crocodile com-
ing for you?

Confidential to: I’m Really Really Mad and
Somebody Ought to Do Something About It
Right Now:

Well, you're right to be mad because what is
happening to you is so very maddening. I mean
it is both crazy-making and anger-inducing,
Yikes,

It's hard to know exactly where to start with a
situation such as yours. First, I suppose, is to
remain calm or if already uncalm to get calm,
Recalm yourself, number one.

Next we could try, I suppose, to untangle all
the history and root causes and twists of fate
-and knives, but we'd get a headache trying, and
what would we be left with? Just you.

But it would be a calm you.

BENEATH a recent scar on
his chest, Mike Turner, 24,
points out the location of his
third pacemaker.

Not many people his age
can claim they have a serial
number he says, pointing to
his wallet card which lists
the make and mode] number
of his pacemaker — a
Cosmos 3.

Turner's most recent oper-
ation took place just over a
year ago. His pacemaker
had unexpectedly
deteriorated and by the day
of surgery his heart rate was
alow 35 beats per minute,

In a normally functioning
heart, the top half of the
heart sets the rhythm for the
botiom half. The two sides
communicate through
nerves. In Tumer’s case,
that communication isn’t
working properly.

Tumer’s medical prob-
lems started when he was
just a baby. Before two
months of age he was in
Vancouver for surgery to
repair a hole in his heart.

When he was 15
Turner’s leg began in-
explicably twitiching.
His lead to his
pacemaker had
broken, and it was
shooting electricity
down his leg.

By the time he was four
Turmer was suffering from
frequent seizures. Doctors
weren’t sure whether he was
epileptic, or needed a
pacemaker.

“‘My doctors bet a steak
dinner over it,” he says.

Now he thinks the seizures
were caused when his heart
temporarily shut down. He
likens them to what happens
when you shut a computer
on and off.

The day before

his

TERRACE STANDAR |

Keeping the beat alive

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 25, 1998 - BI.

A SMALL device located under the skin of his chest makeg sure Mike Turner's

heart keeps beating. At age 24 he seems awfully young to have a pacemaker,
but he received his first one at age four. Aside from having an intense dislike of
hospitals, Turner says the pacemaker hasn't made much of an impact on his life.

ger than the current one
Turmer’ has, which is one
and half inches long and a

half an inch wide.

Since there isn’t much
room in a four-year-old’s
bady, Tumer’s first

pacemaker was placed in his
stomach, with leads running

pacemaker surgery he had
44 seizures.

Twenty years ago
pacemaker technology is not
what it is today. The unit
was two and half times big-

up to his heart.

The pacemaker was sup-
posed to last for eight years,
but Tumer got 10 out of it
since he only used it during
times. when his heart

skipped a beat.

Despite having this
surgery, Tumer says his
childhood was pretty
normal, save for the fact that
he avoided contact sports.

“7 just sort of ignore it
You live with it and do whal
you want to do.”

At age 14 the pacemaker
had worn out and he needed
a new one. The replacement
was again put in his
stomach and attached to the
same leads,

A year later Turner got a
bike and soon after started
experiencing strange muscle
twitches in his leg. He final-
ly went to the doctor and
discovered that the pumping
motion from biking had
likely frayed and broken the
lead to his heart. Every time
his pacemaker fired it shot
electricity down his leg.

“My leg was twitching all
the time,’ he says.

So he went down to Van-
couver once more for

surgery and his pacemaker
was moved into his chest,
The old leads to his stomach
were snipped and capped.

For years Turner managed
to avoid hospitals but by
December, ‘96, he was feel-
ing run down. Running up
the stairs would cause him
to nearly black out.

Retuming ta Vancouver,
Tumer discovered that over
the last three months scar
tissue on his heart had built
up, creating more of a
blockage. His heart was
now missing every beat and
his pacemaker was forced
into sudden overdrive, ©

It ran down quickly and so
did Turner.

“TI was walking slower —
everything was slower,”
Tumer said of the experi-
ence. It made him feel like
an old man,

But his new pacemaker is
a Cadillac model compared
to the old one.

Turner still has a few
problems with his
pacemaker since they’re not
really designed for younger
people.

For example, the maxi-
mum his heart rate can
climb to js 180 beats per
minute, but he sometimes
exceeds that rate during, ex-
ercise. When his heart gets
above 180 the pacemaker
automatically pushes it
down to 130, causing dizzy
spells.

But his body is adjusting
to the changes, and the
dizzy spells are fewer and
fewer. a

*‘As I get older the tech-
nology gets better,”’ he says,
Although he faces more in-
evitable operations, Turner
doesn’t have a shortened life
expectancy. ‘There are a lot
of people a lot worse off
than Iam,” he says.

Thee Terrace Standard is
profiling heart and stroke
patients during Heart
Month in February. The
Heart and Stroke Fourda-
lion provides research
monies for pacemaker tech-
nology and for heart valve
replacements, such as the
one featured in last week’s
article on Dave Wilson.

Fifth book to hit shelves soon

FIVE BOOKS published in ten years. It should be enough
to make any author proud, But what readers don’t realize is
that although local Brenda Silsbe has had success, she’s
also weathered 750 rejection letters during that time.

Ironically, her latest book, W. Haigh, Animal Poet, just
out this year, is about a boy struggling to become a pub-
lished writer.

As for why that manuscript was selected over others
Silsbe isn’t sure, She estimates she has about 35 other
manuscripts she regularly sends out to publishers, never
knowing when or why a book might be accepted.

She wrote this latest book in the summer, and it was ac-
cepted by Ontario publisher ITP Nelson as part of a begin-

ner novel series, The book will be available in schools and

libraries.

‘A lot of it is just luck,’’ she says, ‘‘hitting the right °

market at the right time.”
Terrace readers will find something familiar about

. Animal Poet. One poem is on Frank's Field, with its the

ever-present gecse and the other is aboul a salmon in

_ Spring Creek, located north of town.

Aninal Poet continues Silsbe’s trend of writing on a to-
tally new topic each time.

Her first book, The Bears We Know, is a tiny slim thing,
no more than three inches tall. It’s aboul unruly bears and
has been her best-seller.

Her second book was Just Qne More Colour, about a
man who repaints his house to match the passing scasons.
Pink for blossoms, yellow for dandelions, then he starts
painting his house to match his dog.

Number three, Wiring the Girl of the Sea, is about a girl
washed up on the shore, found by two walkers.

Her most recent, before this latest book, was published in
1995, Called The Watcher, the main character is a boy who
watches a lot.

‘The fun part is thinking of a good idea,’’ says Silsbe.

She quit her job as a teacher ten ycars ago and made a
deal with her husband that she’d give writing 4 try for two
years, tosee if she could make a go of it.

Now she says stubbornness keeps her going. Writing the
books isn’t the difficult part though. The hard part is con-
stantly mailing out manuscripts — and keeping track of
what she’s sent to which publisher.

But having so many books out at any one time also

’ makes it easier cach time she gets a rejection letter.

“If you were just banking on one story it would be
devastating every time it came back.’’

My
J
SER

TERRACE AUTHOR Brenda Silsbe Just had her fifth

children's book published.

Called W. Haigh, Animal Posi, the book Is about a young boy struggling to be-

come & published poet.

SECTION B
CRIS LEYKAUF
638-7283

4
4

tre oe

a 7