Our team was named "Annie's Roses" in honour of my grandmother and her amazing garden. If you never had the pleasure of visiting their house on Fern Street it was an oasis in the middle of suburban Chilliwack. Perfect hedges and roses in the front garden and a half acre plot of vegetables, fruit and flowers in the backyard. I spent so much of my childhood sitting on my little bench having teatime with my grandparents there, in our own little secret garden. That bench now sits in my living room, a reminder of the garden of love they planted deep in my heart (as my own children jump all over it hopefully planting seeds in their hearts as well).
Often if you came to visit that house on Fern Street my grandmother would send you home with a perfect rose in full bloom from the front garden. Her love language was always taking care of others usually with food or flowers.
With that knowledge I decided to name our team "Annie's Roses". We had generous donations from friends and family for a very important cause as ovarian cancer is often diagnosed late and currently there is no screening test. My grandmother also suffered greatly at the end and my hope would be that no one else would have to endure that. Also professionally I have had a number of patients with ovarian cancer both in my paediatric and adult practice and more research would be so helpful in diagnosing and treating this disease. So in memory of her and in honour of the women that would battle ovarian cancer after her we decided to walk.
I pre-registered our team the day before and wrote our team name on our family T-shirts. I bought yellow roses with pink edges that I always associate with my grandma. There was only one bundle at the store and those were ours. They bloomed perfectly for the next day.
We arrived at Rainbow Stage and our friends and colleagues were already there. Two nurses from Women's Hospital have been organizing this even since they lost their mom to ovarian cancer in 2000 and they do an amazing job. There was face-painting and snacks and temporary tattoos and balloons and the kids were in heaven. We had brought the wagon and decorated it with the vase of roses and pictures of my grandma in her garden.
It was a beautiful day to walk and we walked through beautiful gardens on a warm September day. Keith pulled the wagon wearing a white feather boa (I have a beautiful picture of my grandma wearing one on her 80th birthday) like the good sport that he is.
When we arrived back after the walk I decided the roses were in such perfect bloom that I would give them away for others to enjoy just as she would have done.
When I walked back into Rainbow Stage I saw a woman walking towards me with a beautiful bald head. She was clearly recently in treatment. I had noticed her throughout the day but as she walked closer I recognized who she was and smiled. She walked up to me and said "I have been trying to place you as I kept telling myself "I know this girl!"". I smiled and said "I am your doctor." (it's hard to recognize your doctor out of context in sportswear and a yellow flower in her hair). She gasped, grabbed me, hugged me and started weeping. She held me there for a long time crying with me trying not to cry. She held me so long in fact that Cian thought she was a good friend and the kind heart that he is he gave her a big hug from behind. As she leaned back her face red from crying she said "You saved my life." My heart was full to overflowing. I may not have been able to save my grandma but this amazing woman had a family that loved her too and she was going to make it. I gave her one of grandma's roses and she asked her husband to take our picture together. On my hard days as a doctor that will be one of the moments I come back to.
I handed out the rest of the roses to volunteers at the walk, a lot of whom I work with at Women's hospital, and survivors who were conveniently wearing teal T-shirts to help identify them. Everyone's faces lit up when they unexpectedly got a flower from a total stranger honouring them and honouring my grandma as our family's story touches a little closer to home for families affected by ovarian cancer.
It was a beautiful day inside our hearts and out in the beautiful autumn air. I would have loved to have shared it with my grandma. She would have laughed at the crazy antics of the kids and probably found herself most comfortable behind the food counters with my nursing friends. How I wished I lived closer to my mom and my aunt who I'm sure would have loved being on our team to share the day with us. I am so lucky to live in a family that was tended to so lovingly by my grandparents - all the beautiful things that we do spring from the love you taught us.
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