Photo Greater Than 1000: Angelo Merendino at TEDxUSU

Posted on by Angelo Merendino

Originally Published on Nov 18, 2013 On September 1, 2007, I married the girl of my dreams. Five months later Jennifer was diagnosed with breast cancer. Over the next four years we faced constant change as Jennifer’s illness grew more serious. During this time, Jennifer allowed me to photograph our day-to-day life. Our hope was that these photographs would offer people a more realistic view of life with cancer. Since Jennifer passed in 2011 these photographs—our love story—have been vital to my accepting Jennifer’s death, embracing my own mortality, and finding peace within myself.

Angelo Merendino is a photographer whose photo-documentary, The Battle We Didn’t Choose — My Wife’s Fight With Breast Cancer, has received worldwide recognition. Intimate, honest, and moving, Angelo’s photographs offer viewers a look inside the day-to-day life of a young couple facing breast cancer together. More than a story about loss, this is a story about love and life.

Since his late wife Jennifer passed in 2011, Angelo has maintained a blog chronicling life before, during, and after his experience as a caregiver and now, as a 39-year-old widower. Much like his photographs, Angelo’s posts are open and raw. His hope is to encourage conversation about topics that are [...] continue the story

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A Partner In Crohn’s

Posted on by Me & My Crohns

Posted: 22 Jun 2013 11:37 AM PDT

I talk to many people throughout my life that suffer with an IBD, either through Twitter (@MrAwesomeBen), my blog or my local Crohn’s and Colitis UK (Leicestershire & Rutland) charity. These people have become a cruck for me to rely on. They know, pretty much, what I am going through. These people, some of whom are complete strangers, people who I would not recognise if I passed them in the street, are there for me and vice-versa.

I bang on about not suffering alone, especially in this modern era of the internet where a new friendship with someone is only a click away.  You can hide any embarrassment or anxiety behind the computer screen.

I class myself to be extremely lucky in this world. I found love. I found a woman to share my world with, who accepts me for what and who I am.

Granted neither of us knew at the beginning the trouble I would put us through with my diagnosis but I doubt that would have changed a thing. I struggle to remember a time where she wasn’t a part of my life.

Now I don’t want this blog to sound like one massive brag. [...] continue the story

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Ethan’s Story: Hockey, Guts and Diabetes

Posted on by Robert Hawke

Published on Sep 14, 2012

Ethan tells us what its like to grow up with Type 1 diabetes from a very young age. Great and powerful insights for people living with diabetes, their families and health care professionals. This film has been used as curriculum for the University Of Toronto medical program. Funded by The York University Nursing Academy. Directed by Robert Hawke.

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Perinatal Loss – Open to Hope Radio

Posted on by Open To Hope Foundation

Published on Nov 13, 2012

Christine Jonas-Simpson is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at York University in Toronto. After the loss of her own baby boy in 2001 she began to focus her arts-based research on how human beings live and transform with loss. She is currently working on a documentary series and is the author of the children’s book, Ethan’s Butterflies.

 

More by Christine Jonas-Simpson

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Life is Hard

Posted on by Natalie Wahl

I have been avoiding the internet, blogging, and all things online for the past week or so. I have touched in with facebook, and occasionally made sure I didn’t have any important e-mails pending, but mostly I have gone off the grid.

I have also been hiding in my room.

Here is why: my son was just diagnosed with Apergers, OCD, ADHD, ODD, a mood disorder, social phobia, and sensory processing disorders. He may also have an eating disorder. In the last week, I have seen what it is like for a child to lose control and rage without remembering the incident, or even knowing why. I have watched my son struggle to understand why he has to take new medications everyday and what the name/label of Aspergers means. I have learned that I am not alone amongst even my neighbors in dealing with this disorder, and I have cried for the child that I thought I had.

Life was not fun this week, and this blog is about the joy in life. My son was the one thing in our lives that we could count on as being good. My husband and I both suffer from chronic illnesses, my pituitary gland has [...] continue the story

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