| girllovingtvibe |
Location: http://www.lolitaslust.ca/chinchilla.htm
Cover: $10 (no guestlist)
Start time: 8:30p.m. - 3 a.m.
AURORA MCLOUGHLIN
I am truly blessed to have a friend like Caroline in my life. From the moment I met her she shared, and continually does, the beautiful story of the friendship between Aurora and herself. In Memory of Aurora McLoughlin please help support one of my best girlfriends raise money for her 60K walk for life.
"The Weekend to End Breast Cancer is a two-day, 60-kilometre walk through the neighbourhoods of Toronto, taking place September 8-10, 2006.
Proceeds benefit Princess Margaret Hospital, funding important breast cancer research, education, services and care.
Aurora McLoughlin is the reason I'm walking. The first time I met her, she was moving into her apartment, the one right below mine. She had the biggest, friendliest dog that I had ever seen. And being the owner of a black lab cross named Chelsea myself, I gave her beautiful, large golden lab whose name was Chloe, a delicious doggie dentabone. Aurora was delighted because this gesture of friendship would help Chloe to feel comfortable and right at home. Her dog was so important to her.
We said hello to one another only briefly. The next time I saw her she was leaving our building in tears. Seeing anyone cry makes my heart feel like its being squeezed, and I couldnt just let her go without asking if she was okay. Aurora explained that she was on this heart medication that made it difficult for her to go up and down the stairs. The heart condition, she said, was a result of the run of chemotherapy she had recently completed.
I knew, of course, that if anything is affecting your heart medically, it will affect your emotions too! The heart, after all, is the seat of emotion! She went slowly up the stairs, and I said, Thats it. Lets cheer you up then; well take our dogs to the beach. And we did. Aurora told me that she was an actress, and how shed gotten cancer, that was now in remission. She was starting to put her life back together again. But her recovery time was short.
Aurora didnt want people to know how sick she was again becoming. She swore me to silence, and made me promise her that if anyone came asking about her, I was to say that she was fine, but didn't want company. I only had to do this once. A very dear friend of Auroras dropped by to see her. Shes well, I told her, lying, just asleep. The truth was that Aurora had been admitted to the hospital for what would be the last time.
It was a great struggle to get her there. Aurora hadnt walked in over a week. A friend of mine from the States who worked with people who had cancer told me that if Aurora wasn't walking, she probably had a tumor on her spine and needed treatment right away. Auroras mother had gotten the same information when shed called her oncologist and she and Auroras aunts began worrying themselves sick. But Aurora, perhaps sensing something that none of us could know, decided to stay right where she was. I started buying her diapers and making her meals. Our neighbour, Jennifer, helped to walk her dog. I didnt have my dog, Chelsea, to walk anymore because she had gotten cancer too, and had had to be put to sleep. I remember while Chelsea was still alive and Aurora was still walking, shed come to let the dog out, and Chelsea wouldnt move from her bed. I used to think she didnt want to trouble Aurora with the walk.
I confronted Aurora with my friends information about the probable tumor on her spine, and encouraged her to go to the hospital. It was more of an argument than a persuasion for I wanted, needed her to get treatment so that she could get better and come back home again. Her family met her in Emergency right away, and on August 3rd, 2004 she was admitted to the Princess Margaret Cancer Hospital. Soon everything would be alright, or so we thought.
I would drop by the Princess Margaret Hospital with things she needed and wanted. She encouraged me to marry my Irish boyfriend and live a happy life, as she had married an Irishman herself. And then suddenly one day without warning she asked me not to come to the hospital for awhile. Shed started the chemotherapy she told me and wasnt feeling very well.
My Irishman, Niall Jack and I were scheduled to be married October the 8th, a Friday, but on an impulse we decided to elope instead, and got married on October 6th. About 2:30 that afternoon, I stopped by the hospital to leave my bridal bouquet at the nursing station for Aurora. The next day, October 7th, Auroras mother called to tell me she had passed away just half an hour after the nurses brought my bouquet to her room. My best friend of the past two years had died on my wedding day. I will always believe that we eloped for Aurora, and that she waited to make sure I was looked after. I will never forget my special friend on our special day. And at her mothers request, I now take care of Chloe, who reminds me everyday of our friendship."
Carolines JOURNEY
http://www.endcancer.ca/site/TR?px=1352429&pg=personal&fr_id=1120&fl=en_US&s_tafId=1630
CAROLINE GRANDINI
COME JOIN US Friday, May 12/06 FOR A FUNDRAISING EVENING @ LOLITA'S LUST (CHINCHILLA LOUNGE: 513 Danforth Ave) @ 8:30 p.m. $10 cover. DJ Ampz, Aaron Mossey, DJ Eso, Deep Groove |
|
|
