Faye's Feedback

 Never in my wildest imagination would I be acting in a play in the 2025 Winnipeg Fringe Festival! But it's true! I have always loved acting. Since being at Kelvin High School, I participated in all of the operettas; one of them in an acting role as the maid in No, No Nanette . In the other operettas, I was in the chorus. I was part of an acting group on the side as well, and enjoyed that immensely. One of the co-participants was David Huband, who is currently a professional actor. At church, I played a clown with my friend Joey for a Vacation Bible School week. We almost started up a business as clowns for children's parties. As often as possible, I volunteered for roles in my church's Christmas productions. The year my first husband died, I was in a comedic role as a choir conductor. Despite my grief, I stayed in the role and it certainly helped distract me and make Christmas a little bit happier. As a mother of teenagers, I spent some time trying out for roles as an extr...

I thought my mom had a mini stroke. The nurse wouldn’t say what it was, but I was sure. Apparently she was tired and didn’t eat much at lunch.  When I picked her up for supper, she was lethargic and had a little trouble talking clearly. She was very cold and her tongue was not working properly. At the restaurant she chewed and chewed her salad without swallowing it except when taking a sip of her coffee. I knew something was wrong, so I took her home as soon as possible. I thought she had bitten her tongue, as it was a bit of blood came out on a napkin. I sat with her for a while, gave her water and held her hand until she fell asleep on her bed with extra coverings.  The next day Uncle Connie (who was a doctor) visited her to check her over. She was still mobile and able to do everything. He noticed that she was a little vacant. The day after that, nurse Danielle called me at work and told me about her episode, sudden fatigue on the way to her hair appointment and she faded -...

While my mother was on a trip to see my sister in Portland, I went to her apartment to sort through her kitchen and take some unnecessary things away. When she came home, I showed her a new telephone and a tidy apartment. She insisted that "they" had followed her to Portland, and that they knew about her trip by listening to her phone calls. On her last day there, they apparently stole two dollars and a pair of her panties. My sister said that the two dollars was found in her purse, but Mom insisted that it wasn't true. So negotiations with her doctor about the possibility of a care home began. Gradually we convinced her to consider a care home, and I began taking her on tours of various options. I began to get discouraged, as she gave all kinds of reasons to refuse the choices. I met my second husband in 2006, thanks to a blind date situation set up by my favourite cousin, Judy. To her, Darrell seemed a lot like my own father, a quiet, steady man who loved fixing cars. D...

Patience needed to be my strongest ally, dealing with the changes and my mother's complaints about the thieves in her new home, who even took her chequebook apparently just for the cookie recipe written on a cheque.  I hoped the new location might assist in diminishing Mom's perceived thefts, but after a while it got worse. She thought that "they" were climbing to her third floor balcony with a rope pulley. The same people were the culprits, and had apparently followed her there from her old apartment.  She called me at home and at work, complaining about things missing or putting me on guilt trips for not paying enough attention to her. One day her ID was gone, and I worried that I'd have to apply for duplicate ID for her, but later found the packet in her purse which was hidden in the oven. Another time her glasses were smudged with fingerprints when she woke in the morning, and she blamed the thieves who brought along a little boy to smudge her glasses. I asked...

In 2002, the last time I remember seeing my husband Wern was when he made his nightly peanut butter sandwich and he passed me in the kitchen doorway smiling at me with the usual glint in his eye. That night I woke up to Wern making "snoring" sounds, but it wasn't snoring and I ended up doing CPR at the instruction of the 911 operator. He stopped breathing and the paramedics took over on arrival and revived him enough to take him to the hospital. He died shortly after. He had had an enlarged heart. My mother was of course devastated at first, but it wasn't long before she seemed to entirely forget that he had existed. In her dementia, her focus was on herself and how I looked after her. Mom depended on me way too much. She kept telling me that I am her reason for living. I had my own life and responsibilities after losing my husband. Of course I would look after her until she dies, but it became a problem for my mental health. I went away on a trip for some relief, and...

I no longer have a CD player at home that works, so when my boss Steve Bell gave me a preview copy of his new album "The Glad Surprise," I waited to play it until I was in my car on the way to work. Steve sang at my husband Darrell's funeral in 2023. For the recessional, at my request, his manager Dave played the song "A Reason for it All," written by Steve's dear friend Byron O'Donnell, who passed away the same year. Steve decided to add a cover of that song on his new album, which will be out in October, 2024 called "The Glad Surprise".  I had only heard snippets of songs during the period of recording when I was at the office, so hearing it all in one shot brought me to tears. Steve's version of "A Reason for it All" is a more upbeat rendering of Byron's beautiful words and melody, and his version is added as a bonus at the end of the album. This song alone is a great reason to purchase this album. "A Reason for it All...

My Mom was constantly losing things. I was beginning to tire of searching her apartment for lost small items, like toothpaste, laundry detergent (lost in scoopfuls), and other daily necessities. I thought that she was merely forgetful of using items, or putting them away in other places. It was all very gradual. A lost Santa hat was one that she made quite a fuss about. She began to accuse people in her apartment building. The building supervisor was an elderly lady named Sally (name changed for privacy reasons). She had a son and daughter who lived in the same building. Mom began to accuse Sally and her children of coming into her apartment, taking small things including food and rearranging other items so that she couldn't find them. I reasoned with her, I searched the apartment, and listened to her complain. It didn't make sense to me that someone would enter her apartment for such small incidental items. Several of Mom's friends lived in the same building, and they were...