One Red Hot Country Mama!

TTC Streetcar at Spadina Station
Originally uploaded by sillygwailo

Lately I have been taking public transit (the TTC) to my new office and there you see a lot of people struggling with physical and mental health issues. On Friday morning I saw a woman, with a pink shirt and pink pants, coordinates which are worn by women of a certain age, ambling backwards down the stairs of a streetcar. I felt bad for her, but thought it may be insulting to offer help. At that moment, I really appreciated how easy it is for me to simply walk up and down those same stairs without a thought.

When I was four, my dad got diagnosed with Malignant Melanoma or Skin Cancer. Today, this is very treatable if caught early, but this was the 80s and it was not found early. So – there was two long years of illness, standard and experimental treatments for my dad – and I watched this man, who was a giant to little me at 6’3, a PhD and a professor, a passionate man with a warm laugh and the only bread earner in our family slowly fade away and eventually die a few days before my sixth birthday.

Likely because of this, I am deeply grateful for the health that I do have and with a few notable exceptions, have mostly made physical health a big priority for me. There are always the fads, but basically if you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, get enough sleep, exercise and stay out of the sun – in general the bases are covered.

I remember an acquaintance I had once who had spent her life in a wheelchair called people with little or no health problems TAB, or Temporarily Able Bodied. She said that for “TABs” like me, it was just a matter of time before I got sick or somehow disabled – because most of us become so sometime in our lifetime. Just think of your parents or grandparents and you will think of how.

So – while we are all TABs, we might as well appreciate our bodies for what they can do now – like eating, exploring somewhere beautiful, exercising and all of the other physical pleasures to be had .