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strongest support and she respects that it may be harder to be the ones left behind than to be the one leaving. Her daughters know that sometime soon she may be taken from them but Roz insists that however untimely this may be, it's in the natural order for parents to leave their children. Death is on the table for discussion at her home and Roz says she's preparing them for the future with her version of a crash course in life--a new idea for publication--Rosalind's Survival Guide. It's very moving to see her with her family. They rarely take their eyes off her and they help her very gently when she needs it. resides. Roz knows a care won 7 come in time for her but a liny part of her still hopes for a miracle. All through the progression of her breast cancer Roz has refused chemotherapy until it became clear that it was the only other hope to improve her quality of life and offer her more time with her family. I wondered if Roz would live through the Christmas season because she had to deal with a pneumonia crisis and was very debilitated. Now her x-rays show tumors like ping pong balls, golf balls and tennis balls. Sounds confused and fiercely playground for cancer. surreal--a competitive Rosalind is still living a good life. All my best. Judy Caldwell the arts MacPhee's story speaks volumes for the many, many women upon whom breast cancer descends. Caldwell also helped me followup on a story I had heard about the Life Quilt for Breast Cancer Project, which is producing three quilts to honour women with breast cancer. The panels were painted by Coquitlam artist Gay Mitchell and w i l l be stitched and assembled in a o f g b e e s through 'I don't think Rosalind fears dying. She tells me not living TM ^ ^ " fully is something to fear more than an early death." Judy Reimer is the founder of With everything Roz has to deal with, it seems self-centred but I still can't stop the thoughts from coming in the middle of the night. Why Roz The first panel Project, in the Cut this project, which uses the traShe wants to make the big 5-0 and she did in January with 50 people toasting her with champagne and cake. The highlight of her birthday party was the mass release of a flotilla of balloons carried over Howe Sound by a gale force wind. One hundred and fifty emissaries took off into the late afternoon sky each with a wish for Roz tied to it. The colours were spectacular and there wasn't a dry eye in the house as the sun set and the last balloon faded from sight. Roz's friends who arranged this celebration of life are truly Love in action. There's no fairness in this. I just got my four-year clean bill of health and Roz is coming to the end of her life. We were diagnosed within six months of each other with similar situations and it's terrifying to think that I could be the next woman with my head on Rosalind's pillow. She has been my friend now for over three years and I feel robbed of a relationship that should have ripened over decades. That's what this disease does--it stalks and steals and gets away with it. Roz told me that this the first Spring in memory that she has cherished HI an unhurried pace and she's even thinking aboul planting primulas on her deck overlooking the Sound. Neither of us believe that a positive attitude can guarantee life, but in some ways, attitude is life and ditional quilt as a metaphor to identify and increase public awareness of the needs of women, their families, friends and caregivers who are struggling in all stages of the disease. Reimer was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1990. In 1993 she found out the cancer had spread. Reimer. a single mother, lives in East Vancouver with her two children, ages seven and eight. She writes. "In the spring of 1995. thinking about my experiences with breast cancer. I decided I wanted to help other women and their families confronting this disease. For me. the Life Quilt is the warmth and comfort of friends and community." A n d communities are responding. Quilting guilds from the North Shore are involved and Joyce Roberts, a member of the Delbrook Quilters G u i l d , says she got her group to put the batting on the back o f the panels in order to prepare them for quilting. Roberts said the group was happy to jump and participate. She also asked about this article and told me I H A D to call her "adopted daughter" Jackie Ralph Jamieson, the creator and driving force behind In Between Dances, a C D which set out to raise $ 5 M for breast cancer research. Now a West Vancouver resident. Jamieson was the lead singer for the Bells, one of Canada's top recording groups in the 1970s. "After I got over my first round of and why not me? Yesterday afternoon I sat with her during her last chemotherapy treatment at the British Columbia Cancer Agency. Roz truly had a room with a view that the finest hotels would envy. It overlooks the Vancouver skyline and the snow-covered North Shore mountains and from her window you could see the B.C. Cancer Research Centre--an old and tired building that was once a bakery. The work that goes on there seemed remote from us but that's where the Hope for a cure Life Quilt in Prime, by artist Gay The Project is Mitchell. looking to sew (for of the of of breast 112 for volunteers 8" x 8" squares the quilts) borders in memory or in celebration someone cancer. with Call 301-1 (Judy) or (Shelley) 875-8730 will and a kit be sent to you.