CYNDA YEASTING is always smiling at the world. A long-time legal administrative assistant, she takes chances with her passions, and admits, “you never know where an idea will go.”
Recently, the mother of two grown sons started making and selling dog cookies, an idea that was an extension of her original Cynda’s Cookies, which are sold at Vancouver’s West End Community Centre functions and fairs.
At the same time, she is promoting a book she wrote to honour the relationship she had with a terminal cancer patient, whom she met and fell in love with after his diagnosis. For Michael, Love Cynda was written from journals she kept of their time together and afterwards.
“I had to write it, so he would not be forgotten,” says Cynda of the book. “I usually put my emotions on a shelf, but it was time to take them down.”
In 2016, Cynda was honoured to read from her book at the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop LiterASIAN annual festival dinner. A portion of the book sales are donated to the Canadian Cancer Society.
JIM CORNISH took early retirement after 31 years on the road as a truck driver in the Lower Mainland to give his mother the full-time end-of-life personal care he felt she deserved.
Since then, “she’s walked out of the palliative ward three times,” says Jim of his now 96-year-old mother. Must be the good care she’s getting, and the ability to live at home and still participate in the daily chore she likes: washing the breakfast dishes.
Jim takes breaks from the physical and emotional demands of in-home caregiving through Coastal Health’s Caregiver support programme, which allows him up to 30 days per year for respite.
To recharge his battery, Jim ventures out on trips to Africa or the BC outback, where he recently enjoyed a seven-day horse-packing outfitters adventure into off-the-grid countryside.
“I have no regrets,” he says of his decision to be a family caregiver.
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