© 1909 oy MEA

1 WAS WATCHIN:
WILLARD SCOTT...

“THE BORN LOSER® by Art and Chip Sansom

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CHERRY CORDIALS FOR YOU,
MOTHER GARGLE! SHEETS FOR

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HOW THOUGHTFUL OF BRUTUS
TO SHOW HIS TRUE FEELINGS

WOVEN LAWHERS ARE.
BECOMING THE MOST
ROWERFLUL FORKE IN)

WASHINGTON... AND THEY CAN
BAKE. “THEIR
HEART'S CONTENT
UITHOUT ANY MALE
WUISECRAKKS...

HELP CApTivE \

IN AN EYE
» CHART
eacprory

“oe SE OOK YOUR ADVICE. oa

| Tay TMK A
At penne we
OF WY MOTHER,

KIT 'N’ CARLYLE® by Larry Wright

‘GRIZZWELLS® by Bil Schorr

VER GOO

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REMINDED HER

teas Never

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® 1999 by NEA, Inc.

GURE OUT THar

WHY AREN'T THERE
ANY IOB-YEAR OLD MEW?

WAIT A MINOTE...THIS ISN'T
SWEETEST DAY, 1T’S...UH-OH!

@ 1992 Be NEAL

© 1903 by NEA, ne TriAVES 4 - i

SNAFU® hy Bruce Beattie.

MacPhee maintains

ner sense

From pave 38

couldn't bear the thought af leav-
ing this world knowing she had
done nothing to help her two
daughiers, Katherine, 21, and Jen-
ny, 18 Having a mother with
breast cancer automatically put
them at higher risk for contracting
the disease.

Sco she wrote about her ordeal as
if it were an adventure, and titled
it Picasso’s Woman, a title inspired
by the artist’s cubist penchant for
depicting women with an irregular
number of breasts.

Any good adventure has a
heart-stopping moment, For me,
the words, ‘itis cancer,’ did quite
nicely, MacPhee begins,

fi don’t remember the exact
moment that this particular adven-
ture started, There was a period of
denial. I've never been preoc-
cupied with my physical anpear-

ance. Likewise, | have always bee.,-

terribly off-hand about anything,
that happened within my bouy —
ignore whatever sezms to have
gone wrong and the problem will
disappear as mysteriously as it ap-
peared...

A mastectomy had been
recommended. The doctor warn-
ed that such surgery had the same
impact as an amputation. ... |
heard percentages for survival

_fates: two, five, or 10 years? Was

he talking to me? ... At one of the
most frightening moments of my
life, | suddenly had to become a
researcher and mike coal deci-. |
sions ina fieid | knew nothing ~
about...

The day arrived for my dressings
to be removed. .:. At first, |
couldn’t make myself look dawn"
at the incision. ... A long and wide
diagonal scar ran from the centre
of my chest to underneath my...
arm. | was struck with the image of
a railroad track crossing a prairie. 1
was also aware of a deep sadness.

MacPhee says reliving her ordeal
in print was “horrendous”
because although she wanted to
help other women with her story
she was equally motivated to
move beyond the pain of her per-
sonal story.

As it turned out, Picasso’s
Woman ended up beating out
thousands of contestants in CBC
Radio’s national literary competi-
tion.

The judges praised MacPhee’s
work for its intimate poignancy
and bestowed on her the $2,000
prize in the personal essay catego-
ry. :

Her first reaction was surprise

3
y
e

D:
T from

(ce ibet ilieyed e op)

of humor

and delight, CBC, after all,
receives literally thousands of
submissions each year,

“So it was kind of like winning:
the lottery." ;

But winning meant publicity —
publicity MacPhee could have
happily done without,

“It was like walking out into .
traffic and taking my clothes off,”
she says.

That MacPhee has always been
a private person made it even
more difficult: her early collections
of poetry, Scarecrow and Maggie,
are both highly personal works.

So it was hardly surprising that -
she kept her discovery of a breast:
Jump to herself. Butin this in. 0
stance she didn’t even tell het awe.
husband or daughters until just a>"
day before the surgery. oe

Now, she realizes that wasa
mistake. ; a

In fact, she is angered when she’
thinks about the number of we
women stricken with breast cancer °
— over 5,000 Canadian women
succumb to it every year — and
saddened Ly how few personal
stories are available for public
consurnption. ‘

“Betty Ford was one of the first:
to come out and say ‘I haves |»
breast cancer.’ It wasn’t talked |.
about at all, you didn’t. even dar
whisper.it. ©: 6 Os re eh

‘This is nat for'a minute a:
feminist issue,” she insists. “’On

in nine women die of breast.”
cancer.” (The Canadian Breast”

Cancer Foundation puts that
number closer to one in:10.) -
We're talking about a disease
that is the leading cause of death
among Canadian women (in'B
it’s lung cancer) and yet pedpl
are still afraid to use the word

“epidemic” and breast cancers.

the same breath, says MacPhee.
twas curious to know how a
paramedic who regularly deals
with life and death situations:
Inanages te maintain a sense.o
humor, ron
“Every time | think I’ve seen it-
all, life shows me I haven’t,”. she.
says of her work with the am--
bulance service. 85 wets
“When it came to my cancer; |
told my friends we've got to keep
our sense of humor in this.".0°°
Her friends have taken her at.
her word: a few months aifter-her.
surgery a bunch of them got:
together and threw her a wake.:
Everyone came dressed in black.
“We're not sure if it’s sick or...
funny,” laughs MacPhee. “It’s “°°
definitely comic relief."

RE.CLOTE
TTtint

Tibet is a paradise for photographers,
art-and-architecture buffs and for anyone who |
likes the idea of travelling backwards in time to | |
find themselves in a medieval society,

However, the all-pervading dust and grit are
tough on‘clothes — in spite of which my Tilley's
are as good as new. .

hley Eva

Tilley Endurables Western Inc., Barbara and John Tilley, independent retailers.

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Anne Forbath
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Vancouver |:

1494 Marine near Pemberton 1537 Broadway near Granville

(987-6424

732-4237

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