There was the local boy, Dawson, suffering from childhood leukemia. Watching my co-worker’s children and wife see his coffin after he died suddenly in front of most the newsroom at an awards ceremony. Driving home on the DVP one evening seeing a motorcycle driver holding up the wheels of car with his helmeted head. And the vicious story of a troubled man that shot his girlfriend, their son and her parents to death on their front lawn near Niagara Falls.
These stories and more in the 15+ years I’ve been a journalist. All of them impact me more now as a parent when I look back on them. Your view of the world changes once you have kids. You think of the victim’s parents. Your heart floats around outside your body in the form of your kids, and is hurt far easier.
Right now I have several friends on the cusp of giving birth — one will be my nephew in October — while my good friend Sara just had her baby a month ago. All will be born in clean and safe hospitals with access to doctors, emergency surgeons, drugs and more. It’s something we don’t think twice about, exacerbated by the fact we have free medical care in Canada.
A few months ago, I interviewed a local midwife about a trip to Haiti for the magazine I publish. I had a very, very hard time with it. It rolled around in my head for days and days until I wrote it, keeping my up at night, making me nuzzle my girls a little more each day.
There were things so disturbing I couldn’t include them. Stories about dead babies and shoeboxes and a garbage dump in the backyard. So shocking and absolutely unfathomable.
Please read Tiffany’s story (click image to open pdf).
Possibly related posts:
My Husband’s Nephrologist went to Haiti just after the earthquake for a couple of weeks. I was in awe of him when he told us. Many dialysis centres were destroyed in the quake and there were so many people in need of them. It’s so sad that there must be so much strife in the world, there is such a division between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. Kudos to those who were selfless enough to go and help, they deserve our admiration and respect.
[...] a story about the Uxbridge Community Midwives and Tiffany Haidon’s trip to Haiti. As Carly wrote in her blog post, “There were things so disturbing I couldn’t include them. Stories about dead babies and [...]
[...] Carly wrote in her blog post, “There were things so disturbing I couldn’t include them. Stories about dead babies and [...]
[...] [...]