Nancy Figueroa Writes

This is the scariest time of the year--the time when I eat way too much candy! I hope this year will be different. We don't have any youngsters trick or treating, so I can't get into my kids treats. Yes, I'm one of those mothers who did that...don't tell my boys! Last year I thought I'd get smart and wait till Halloween before buying anything--thought I was so clever. Just as I was leaving to buy treats for the ghosts and goblins who'd soon be at our door, Richard told me he'd already bought everything. "You have?" I asked. "I don't see anything." "That's because I've hidden everything from you," he said. "I've got boxes of Mars Bars, Kit Kats, Smarties and Dairy Milk and bags of red and black licorice and a box of Swedish Berries. They're all stashed in the trunk of my car." "What?!" "I had to," he said. "Otherwise you'd eat it all." Finally, after 34...

Fifteen years ago today my Mother died. How is it possible I could be on this earth all those long years without her? Kathleen Elise Pietrie Figueroa -- "Kitty" to her parents, "Mom" to her seven children and "Darlingest" to our father -- was born in Kingston Jamaica in 1928. In 1949, at just 21 years of age, she left the warmth of her parents and the sunny skies of Jamaica to marry and begin life anew in cold Canada. Other than my father, who'd left Jamaica a few months earlier to establish them in Toronto, she knew no one. Mom in Jamaica in 1948. I still get teary when I read the letter her father, my grandfather, wrote June 20, 1949 shortly after her arrival in Toronto and just five days before she'd be married: Dear Kitty...I am looking forward to that letter of yours which will say, Daddy I don't like Toronto and will be home soon." Mom and Dad's marriage in The Toronto Daily Star! But such was not the case. Mom lo...

James's birthday is in June but he considers October 14 his re-birthing day. On October 14, 2014 he endured six hours of awake epilepsy surgery to remove a large portion of his left frontal brain. He has been seizure-free ever since. In his words: "It's like I'm only four years old." His positive attitude never ceases to amaze--and comfort--me. For twenty-six years he endured numerous seizures every day of his life. Not any more. Now, along with Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving and Birthdays, October 14 is--and always will be--a date of celebration at our house. It's a day of thanksgiving for Jamie's brilliant and brave neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital, Dr. Taufik Valiante. Dr. Valiante has changed not just James's life, but all of our lives. Thank God he devoted his life to neurosurgery. October 14 is also a day of gratitude for the Canadian health care system. Guess how much neurosurgery and 50 days post-op at Toronto Western and at Bridge...

I'm part of an online epilepsy support group that has members from all over the world. This morning I read a post from a Mom in New Zealand. Her young baby had just been diagnosed with seizures and was prescribed anti-epileptic medication. Tests had been done but so far there was no known cause for her baby's seizures. She wondered what life held in-store for her darling child. She wondered what her child's cognition would be like. She wondered what she should say to her other two children, both under the age of five. She was glad to know that because of this online site, she was not alone. She was not the only mother whose child was suffering with seizures. She sounded like me, 30 years ago with an infant seizing every day, plus two older children under the age of five. Where we differed, however, is that there was no online internet supports 30 years ago for me. There was no internet! I often felt I was the only mother on the planet struggling with an infant with medicall...