AN APPEAL FOR HELP FOR A DISABLED PERSON

I have a friend in Toronto who is in a very bad position -  health wise.  Due to diabetes, he has had several amputations and now lost his leg below his knee.  He also may lose his little finger as well.

I have been advocating for him to Mayor Ford's office as well as Councillor Anthony Perruzza, to get him a one bedroom disabled unit in a rent controlled building in Toronto.  He has to stay in the North West area of Toronto as he is undergoing treatment and even though he does qualify for Wheeltrans, it is very hard to get because of the demands on its services.   I am delighted to say that Mayor Ford's office replied instantly. The Councillor's office replied as well once the person got back to work.  Both are working on this and action is starting to happen.

I am trying to lend a hand from Hamilton by asking friends and caring people to contribute a dollar or two

I have written an appeal for engiver.com and they have accepted it and I now am waiting for a picture from Toronto of this gentleman.  It should come in the mail in a day or so.  Engiver is a vehicle to donate a few dollars to individuals who are in need. I am delighted that they have accepted my appeal.

This gentleman is only 55 years of age, had a terribly rough life, not wanted by his stepmother so he left home at age 12.  His father never came looking for him, which is so sad.  He always worked even though he doesn't have much education and has difficulty with reading and writing.  I think his last permanent job was with a chocolate company in Toronto driving their truck.  He was laid off from that.

He has sold things at Flea Markets and done odd jobs to help himself.  He also has been very generous and kind to others.  He also worked as a superintendent of a rental building at one time.

He was working on construction but not through a regular company, had a fall and broke his back.  Conditions just seemed to worsen for him.  Now his body is being attacked by diabetes and he has had his toes amputated, and now his leg up to his knee cap and there is the possibly of his little finger being removed.

What else can I tell you about him?  In spite of his major health problems, somehow he seems to keep his sense of humour!  He has been a good friend to me for about ten years now.

If you can, and are interested in contributing to help raise some money to move this gentleman, please consider donating through engiver.com  My paypal account is attached to it.

By the grace of God and the wonderful people who are helping as they are able, I have a ride to Toronto, a lady to help me pack, and have collected $230 thus far.  The interesting thing is that two disabled people have contributed $5.00 between them and the lady is crocheting a lap blanket for this man to help ward off the cold when he is out on his scooter getting food.   We need about $800 more to move him and help him settle in.  With his wounds not healing, and due to insufficient money to buy the proper foods, and just mostly using the food bank, he has a lot of strikes against him.

Any amount would help, from a dollar to whatever.

I have faith that through people who care, we will reach this goal and he will be helped.

Thanks for reading and please help if you can.

Cootes Drive, Butterfly Place and Victoria Park

The butterfly place in Dundas

A lovely spot with information at the butterfly place

Sorry,these pictures should be at the end but my computer would not allow that.

The day started off on a bad note. My monitor died just as I was typing an e-mail.  Before calling my computer fellow on the Mountain, I decided to call Andrew to see if he knew of anybody who was giving away a monitor.

He did!  By 7:30 p.m. Andrew had installed a wonderful monitor.  I don't know where he got it, all he said was "God Provides" and here was a monitor which would fit my needs.

Needless to say, I am extremely thankful.

I was not sure how much a new used one would cost plus the $70 charge just to come.

My problem is now solved, thanks to the kindness of Andrew.

At 3 p.m. Jeff picked me up to show me Cootes Drive in Dundas.  It was lovely.  We took lots of shots.

Wild grapes growing

Part of the daisy family I think

Spencer Creek?

It was an amazing walk there.  In some parts it was a little rough walking but with my cane I managed just fine.  Jeff did the crouching down to take some close up pictures for me and went further into the brush to get good shots sometimes.  He always does this which I appreciate.

We saw a darling little tree frog, hopping on the walkway.  He was not afraid of us at all.  We tried to take pictures of him but mine did not turn out.  I think his colour blended in too well with the walkway.

I was enchanted with him.

Happily, we did not see any garter snakes which are harmless and not even very large but I would not have felt so comfortable seeing them.

A reflective poet

We were there so I could get the "feel"of the place as the picture I chose  to write a poem on from Carnagie Gallery is a willow tree.  This walk through the area has given me not only a great deal of pleasure but a deeper insight of the area.  We did not find the particular willow tree but we did see lots of willows.

I still can use the older couple walking there hand in hand but will have to change a few other things after seeing the area.  I had no idea it was so beautiful!  I want to bring that cute little frog in somewhere in the poem as well.  I think that was the highlight of the nature walk for me.


As many of the readers on this blog are from other countries, I hope that it will inspire people to see the beauty of Canada and to get to know the City of Hamilton a little better.

Me 

I was a little nervous there as there was a bit of an incline just after that branch and the water was below.

The last we went to a nature spot in June, I had a tumble down an observation dock!

milk pod

So much beauty but we were only allowed to park the car for two hours.  We met many people walking the trail and everybody was very friendly.

After that we headed over to the Butterfly place in Dundas which also was great.  We saw so many beautiful plants as well as different butterflies.  At his suggestion, we went for coffee in Dundas and then over to Victoria Park in Hamilton and walked around there for a while.  I was pleasantly surprised how nice Victoria Park is.  From the bus, it does not look like much.  I may go there myself as the No. 8 bus will take me.  There are picnic tables and patches with a fence to grow things, a children's playground and also the start of a butterfly garden.

I was quite impressed with the area.  It seems quite quiet and there is an elementary school near by plus some apartment buildings.

Anyway, that is it for the blog today.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures and drop by another time if you wish.

STAN WHITE - POET EXTRAORDINAIRE

What a pleasure it was to hear Stan read last night at the Bryan Prince Booksellers.  He is one of my favourite poets here in Hamilton.

The room was full.  Stan had his poems on an overhead projector screen so you could read along silently as he read his work out loud.

In some ways I liked that, but in some ways I found it distracting, as I concentrated more on the reading of the work rather than listening to him.  I really liked the pictures he showed of what triggered a poem in him.  I could certainly relate to that.  I thought it was an interesting experiment.

Eleanore came in and we sat together.  It was mostly people from the Poetry Center who attended, although there were some people I had not seen before.  It was lovely to see the Gordon's again.  

I particularly enjoyed Stan's poems where there was some humour in it.  I liked the one on aging as it was so realistic!  I had a good laugh at the aging process!

I was most grateful that Alvaro picked me up.  I am not comfortable going out at night by myself and coming back downtown alone.  

For some of Stan's work, please see my writing and publishing blog at http://writingandpublishingblog.blogspot.com

Stan White at the podium 

Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to see some of Stan's other work on my other blog. Just click on his name where it appears.

Ruby McQuesten's art show

I was fortunate enough to go to Dr. Mary Anderson's event which is an art show of Ruby McQuesten's fantastic art work.  This art show is part of the year long celebration of the lives of the McQuesten family and the part they played in the life of Hamilton.  For detailed information on the life of this family, please google Whitehern Museum.

The show was held at the Art Gallery and was very well attended.  I sat with some lovely people and really enjoyed their company.  I also was introduced to a lady who used to be a Psychiatric nurse at the Hamilton Insane Asylum.

She now is on the Editorial Board of HistoriCITY.  She knows my friend Rosemary G as well.  I was telling the people at my table that I had interviewed a volunteer at the Asylum who had been a nurse there so they called this lady over to our table and introduced us.

That is when I found out that she is on the Editorial Board.  I was hoping to meet the Editor, Christine but she was not there today.  I saw Bill Manson there and spoke briefly with him.  We used to both serve on the Literary Committee together many years ago.

It was good to see him.



Ruby has been dead for 100 years. Her work is amazing and I am so glad that her work is now being recognized.  It is a pity that none of the family is alive now.

Artists, writers, sculptors, carpenters to name only a few, leave part of themselves behind when they leave this world.  Their work lives on to enrich other people.  I find that a very comforting thought.

Dr. Anderson has written two books on this family which can be purchased at any bookstore.

Thanks for dropping by.

THIS AND THAT

I haven't posted anything for a few days as I have been quite busy at home.  I was finishing off the last touches on a poem about my daughter and her entry into this world almost 47 years ago. I also was writing the article for HistoriCITY which will be published some time in 2012.

I have a thought to write a poem about significant events in my life and also write about it in prose.  Eventually, I will make it into a book for my family members.  Nobody in our family has ever done that.  Bernadette actually suggested that idea to me several years ago, as I have had some very unusual events occur. I have now done the second poem and have a plan for the third poem in my head.

I was quite pleased with both groups of poets this month, only a few changes in a word here and there.  I had three people come up and compliment me on the birth poem at Poetry Center.  That was very nice of them.

Carnegie Gallery and Tower Poetry will be teaming up to present art and word together.  I plan to go to pick a painting to compose a poem about.  I remember when the husband of the artist asked my permission to keep the framed copy of my poem about his wife.  It touched him so deeply.  I was pleased to give it to him.

I have participated many times in this work but last year was just too busy to go out to Dundas.

Dundas is such a pretty part of Hamilton and well worth the long ride, especially when it is all decked out for Christmas.  I have taken Toronto friends there.

The day is shaping up very nicely, the sun is out, and St. Paul's is having their picnic.  I am going to Mary's event this afternoon though.

Thanks for dropping by and have a fantastic day!

Hamilton Insane Asylum

Hand written letter  from Ministry of Jails and Asylums
Dated March 17, 1876

 Psychiatric Care of Yesterday

Imagine yourself living 144 years ago, confused, not thinking “straight” and people looking at you as if you are “different”.  Your mood swings like a pendulum, sometimes so excitable, sometimes so depressed that you cannot even lift yourself out of bed.   There is nothing that you can do to save yourself from this seesaw of life.

Alternatively, picture yourself coming to foreign shores (Canada) trying to adjust to a new language, new culture, and not always welcomed by those who lived there.

Alcohol was easily accessible. A person wishing to “fit in”, may have thought that this would be the way to find comradeship and acceptance.

There were many reasons that people were unable to cope; alcoholism, family problems, mental health issues and the lack of support through social systems.

In order to meet this need, in 1867 petitions were presented by the Congregation Union of Canada to establish a place of detention for the drunkards of the Province.

According to statistics, one in every 397 people in Ontario were deemed to be of unsound mind and needing proper treatment.  Many people classed as insane were kept in Ontario jails.  As alcoholism was a major problem in those years, members of parliament were pushing for an Asylum.

A site was chosen in 1873, and construction on the Main Building (Barton Building) was begun in l874.  It was in the vicinity of Hamilton, Ontario. It consequently became known as the Hamilton Asylum.  .  The Main Building, now demolished, opened on March 1^st, 1876, as the Ontario Asylum for the Insane.

Patients were often sent there from other hospitals, such as Queen Street Mental Health in Toronto.  The inhabitants were required to work in the fields to grow the fruits and vegetables for the hospital, at Hickory Farm to feed the animals which would later becomes their food, to wash the clothing of hospital patients and staff and to do the housekeeping . They also worked at making furniture and one can see examples of their work in the museum. Massive chairs, solid oak, wide arms, were so heavy that any patient in a violent state, would have a hard time to pick it up and hurl it. A very practical solution.

Many of these people were abandoned by their families and the hospital became their home and normal way of life. The patients and the nurses basically did all the manual work of running the hospital. Doctors and nurses worked shifts of 12 hours and also lived in the hospital.

Occupational Therapists taught the patients to work with their hands making baskets, doing rug hooking, working with wood, making felt animals and other practical items. 

Work done by the patients, taught by Occupational Therapists on staff

In the early years, the focus of the psychiatric hospital was on the care of patients.  The thrust towards  rehabilitation came later.  Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) was introduced in North American after 1945 as a treatment for schizophrenia. ECT is still used today for extreme cases of the disease and as a last resort.

Early  E.C.T. machine

Tragedy struck five times at the Asylum.due to fire.  In the early days, a horse drawn fire engine staffed by volunteers was used. To learn more about these fires, please visit the Museum.

It was a favourite pass time on the weekends, for Hamiltonians to trudge up the hill and gape at the "lunatics" who lived in the hospital. According to my guide Mary Ann, the residents of the hospital used to put on quite a show  - in a sense, laughing at them!


Not only treatment and work went on here over the years, but also sports such as ice skating and curling, both for patients and staff.  The teams played against other Hamilton leagues. There were also dances. from time to time, and entertainers came in from the community some times.


To be a nurse in those days meant quite a different thing than it does today.  For an example, nurses had to carry lamps or lanterns when attending their patients as the rooms were unlit.  Nurses and attendants had their rooms on the wards in the early part of the century.  Before the 1920's, straw ticks (mattresses) were in use.  To make the beds, one had to reach into the straw to fluff it up.  Mice could sometimes be found nesting in the straw.  Nurses also were responsible for cleaning the wards.  Wooden floors had to be swept, waxed and polished with heavy block brushes pushed by the patients.  A Sunday job was to polish brass door plates, handles and doorknobs.  Nurses also washed windows and took garbage (wet and dry) daily to the garbage room in the basement. Nurses served all the meals from large aluminum pots.  They also were responsible for counting the cutlery after each meal to make certain it all was accounted for.  No one left the dining room until this was done! To prepare a sterile tray involved collecting the required equipment and placing it in a large oval bed bath tub.  It was then covered with water and boiled for twenty minutes on the gas stoves in the ward kitchen.  This information on nursing practice at that time was gleaned from Mary Ann
McNamara, Graduate of HPH Nursing School and Museum Volunteer.

Major sedatives used in the 1900's for treatment were heroin and morphine.

As a point of interest, Dr. J. Wallace, Superintendent of the Hamilton Insane Asylum assessed the mental state of Louis Riel and judged him to be sane. As a result, he was tried and hung.

There is so much history in this museum that it is worthwhile to make an appointment to come to Hamilton to see the different artifacts and methods of treatment.

The current collection housed in the Museum was originally started by a Maintenance Man working at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Mr. Joe Kinsella.  Due to his interest in preserving the past, many items of note are to be found in the Museum.  It is an indispensable resource as an educational tool in the teaching community.  It preserves the history of psychiatric care and treatment in Southwest Ontario, with emphasis on capturing the events and essence of early life at the Ontario Asylum for the Insane.

The hours of operation are Tuesday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m,., by appointment only.  To schedule a tour, please contact Volunteer Resources at 905-522-1155, Extension 35561.

This article has touched only on a small part of the history of this venerable old hospital.

Whitehern Gals and Guys last picnic for the season

The parkette

My weeping willow tree and a shot of one side of the parkette.

It turned out to be a fantastic day as the weather was 77 degrees F, with a nice  breeze.  The sun shone brightly and my beloved Weeping Willow tree swayed gently back and forth, caressing the picnickers below.

I got there first so I could stake our claim to the picnic table under the tree, spread out my two folding umbrella chairs and waited for the gang.

James was the first to arrive.  I had made a mistake saying it was Bold. So that threw him off a little bit but he managed to find it.  I felt badly about that as he is walking with a cane now.

Grace and Mary came next and called me to come to the fence to tell them how to get up from the parking lot which I did.  In fact, I walked there to meet them so there would be no mistake.

Anita arrived with the pizzas and we all had a good time enjoying them, each other's company, telling jokes, and finally Jeff came on his bike. He was teaching waterfit until 12 noon.

Left side - James , Grace
Rigjht side - Jeff, Anita, Mary

Our picnic ended about 2ish but I stayed behind to read and enjoy the breeze and my wonderful weeping willow tree.  I left around 3:30 and walked home down the hill and past the Y.

Before I left thought, I had the interesting experience of seeing an old man do a strip tease.  I thought it was so funny.  He saw me sitting under the willow tree reading, he went to a nearby bench, took off his shirt, then I glanced up and saw him unbuckle his belt, then the pants slide down around his ankles. Then he sat on the bench and took off his shoes and socks.  I was a tad nervous that he might not stop there as he had only underwear on (boxer shorts).  However, he must have been a sun worshiper, as he lay on the bench, put his cup over his face, and stretched out.

I told one of the gals who called me this evening of the excitement she missed.

Times sure have changed, if an old man of at least 65, could feel that he could stretch almost naked on a city bench and feel comfortable doing it!  Oh well, it takes all kinds to make a world.