Covid-19


 
2020 look back #4
 
No surprise that the Pacific Spirit Park should feature in my 2020 look back. This Vancouver jewel has been a sanctuary for us since the beginning of Covid-19. Walking its trails surrounded by these majestic trees has sustained and uplifted us every day as we experienced the seasons changing month by month, the colours of the leaves so often luminescent in the sunshine beneath a blue, blue sky. We have never taken for granted how fortunate we are. Hopefully you have enjoyed visiting with us too.

2020 look back #2

Not long after the pandemic started to ravage the world images and stories began to appear in the media and the press of patients on ventilators and health care heroes in PPE. Two such moments led to these two drawings together with their accompanying descriptions:
 

 
April 28thDrawing in the studio today allowed me to spend a few hours in quet reflection on this National Day Of Mourning, a day that perhaps has never been more meaningful, as we remember and honor those who have lost their lives or been injured from their time in the workplace.
I would particularly like to honor the memory of Dr. Lorna Breen, a New York City emergency room doctor, a true hero, and send heartfelt condolences to her family, colleagues and friends.
 
The drawing was inspired by a photograph taken by Marco Bertorello in the Covid-19 ward of Maria Pia Hospital in Turin.

 

 
May 3rd When the Science of Medicine meets the Art of Medicine to save lives in the COVID unit at Vancouver General Hospital.

ECMO stands for Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation but could also stand for Ever Compassionate Medical Optimism, thanks to the dedication of our frontline healthcare workers epitomized by the caring nurse-specialist portrayed in the picture.

2020 look back #1


 
As we approach the end of 2020 and before we welcome in 2021 I thought I would look back at some of the key moments from this past “annus horribilis”. On March 11th I combined this image of our world with the corona virus just as it was all beginning, and wrote:

‪”Today the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Our thanks to all the doctors, nurses and healthcare workers here and around the world working so hard day and night for all their patients and communities but especially to BC’s Dr. Bonnie Henry for her compassion and leadership.”

Here we are over ten months later and the pandemic continues but miracle of miracles during this time vaccines have been developed and there is now a light at the end of our long dark tunnel, and of course those thanks continue every single day.

Human Rights Day


 
Today on Human Rights Day, the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the UN General Assembly on December 10th 1948, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for human rights to be “front and centre”of the COVID-19 response. Also a reminder of Article 14: “Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”

love, art, joy

  
 
Could there be a better way to start the weekend than creating art with my beautiful granddaughter on only our third visit this year. ❤️❤️❤️

“be an Adeline”


 
Today over 200,000 Americans have died of Covid-19. How heartbreaking that one of them was 28-year-old Dr. Dr. Adeline Fagan an Ob-Gyn resident in Houston Texas who died on September 19th. My thoughts are with her family, colleagues and friends as I send them my heartfelt condolences. I am also thinking of all my healthcare hero colleagues at this time, particularly our own surgical residents who I know must be as deeply saddened as I am today.
 
“Even in this darkest of times, there are good people willing to share a piece of themselves for the sake of another,” Adeline’s father Brant has written, and he encourages us all, “to be an Adeline.” I can assure him we will.

a day of remembrance


 
The letters for this quote from Virgil displayed in the Memorial Hall of the September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York were forged from remnant World Trade Center steel by blacksmith Tom Joyce.
 
Seeing the crushed remains of Ladder 3 on our moving visit to the museum in 2015 the sacrifice and bravery of those 343 firefighters of the New York City Fire Department who were lost that day together with an additional 68 emergency workers and the 2566 innocent lives they were trying to save has been a lasting memory.
 
On this 19th anniversary of that terrible day as we remember them all together with those lost at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, we now have too many other lives to remember and mourn, and for whom those words of Virgil could also have been written.
 

 
Six months ago today on March 11th The Director General of the WHO declared that, “COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.” On that day there were more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people who had lost their lives. Today, September 11th 2020, there are 28,412,026 reported cases and 915,088 deaths worldwide.
 
The First Responder Heroes of 9/11 and those heroes on United Flight 93, together with the Frontline Heroes and Healthcare Workers of today who have also lost and continue to lose their lives saving their fellow citizens are all in our thoughts on this solemn day.
 

efernally grateful

Efernally grateful to the majesty of the Pacific Spirit Park that has been a sanctuary of peace and beauty throughout the challenging months of Covid, as it was again today on this eve of the new month ahead.
 

 

 

 

 

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