I’m looking forward to the day I’ll be able to blog telepathically. That’ll sure beat trying to find the time to write up anything! Just imagine the kind of virtualization that’ll bring! As I’m walking to work or riding the train, I could update my blog with my thoughts and feelings at the moment I’m going through them!! 🙂
I think it’ll also help keep things steady because, as usual, I don’t know what to say or speak of first! However, seeing as we are in the midst of Heart Week, and seeing as I spoke about the Heart of Life Benefit Show I had made plans to see last weekend, I’ll continue with that.
Sure enough, Sunday morning Chantale’s parents came over to pick up Charlize and Kyle. Anxious with anticipation, I couldn’t get out of the house fast enough to head to the Leonardo da Vinci theatre. I needn’t have worried about the traffic because for some miracle, there wasn’t any! We got there with time to spare and took the opportunity to catch our breath, look around, and speak with other attendees.
The weirdest/wackiest/warmest moments came when the MCH Cardiology nurses came in, saw us, and we all played catch-up! From there, we started meeting other people and got to talking to a woman who seemed extremely familiar. When she was finally placed, we couldn’t believe the coincidences. Those of you who’ve read Chantale’s entry know this already, but the woman turned out to be the OBGYN who followed Chantale when she was first pregnant with Kyle! Remember? She followed her for 8 months but wasn’t actually around when Kyle was born as he decided to come out the weekend she was coming back from vacation! 🙂
Well, we found out two things that day: 1- the reason she seemed so “out of it” during our visits was that HER son was born with a CHD and she was trying to deal with that! 2nd – her husband is actually the President of the Heart of Life foundation! Bizarre, hm? She was far from “cold” on Sunday I’ll tell you that! 🙂
Now, for the show itself… oh my lord… wow. What a spectacular, sometimes heart-wrenching but always emotional show it was!! From the start with a woman singing “Fields of Gold” while a couple danced – giving us the story of their courtship and happiness at the upcoming birth of their child, to the next song and “story” where a couple have to deal with their rage and helplessness of their child being born with CHD, to the next song when the “child” is taken away for surgery right after birth leaving the mother pining for their baby to hug, dress, and love… I was in tears.
Again, as I mentioned in my previous CHD post about Amelia and her passing, I could not believe the emotions I was experiencing were as close to the surface as they were. It’s been a little over 5 months since Charlize’s surgery which means about 4 months since she’s been home. Even when our friends were going through the same ordeal 2 months ago I thought I was “over” the shock and pain of it all. But this show… if some families who’ve gone through this years ago were still hurting from it, could it really have been so shocking to me that I was affected? Logically, no. But it still came as a surprise.
The experience was amazing and life-affirming. Seeing Dr. Christo Tchervenkov who literally saved my daughter’s life (along with thousands of other children!) and Dr. Marie Beland who’s head of Cardiology at the Montreal Children’s Hospital again was great. Their reaction to what went on on-stage and the audience’s reaction to the event was something almost impossible to describe. Connie Rotella -who’s son Alessandro is also a survivor- put together a fantastic show. The CD single “Heart of Life” in both English and French is practically the theme song for the Foundation and deserves to be. We saw the video of it last week and knew the show was going to be emotional. I don’t think we knew it was going to be as emotional as it turned out to be!!
Anyhow, all this to say that this is such a fantastic show that we are more than likely going back on the 24th to catch it again. Sunday Feb 24th there will be 2 shows, one at 3pm, one at 7pm. We’ll be at the 3pm one and both Kyle and Charlize will be sitting with us. Chantale and I both want to continue helping the Heart of Life and my amazing wife was also so inspired by the show that within two days she’s set up a Facebook support group for CHD Awareness for Montreal families (I’ve mentioned before how we couldn’t believe nothing existed locally for families that have gone through this) as well as tried to get the song and concert Radio air time. Plus, the Cardiology nurse went to visit/ read “Charlize’s Story” that we posted on Chantale’s portal last year and she loved how it was done. In fact, she brought it up at their staff meeting today and has stated that she will definitely be directing other parents to it to both give them an idea of what to possibly expect and to have someone to speak to if they wanted.
I will say that it’s a lot of extra activity being added to an already quite busy household, but the emotional rewards are well worth it!