Cancer claims another young friend

The gymnasium at the Ashcroft Secondary School was packed last Saturday, Oct. 17 when family and friends came from miles around to attend the Celebration of Life for Gordon Tegart.

Gordon was only 54 years old, much too young to die.

He had fought as hard as he could, still claiming in the week before his death that he was going to beat it, but his cancer was not to be beaten. There was no cure for him and his death came suddenly according to his wife Jackie, and he just quietly went to sleep in her arms.

It was amazing to see the turnout for the funeral and to look around and see the spread of ages in attendance, from his grandchildren - some of them too young to even be able to remember him - to some oldtimers who knew the Tegart family through the ages. Along with his family and greatly extended family, the crowd contained his hockey team mates from throughout the years, hunting and fishing pals, golf buddies, Green Lake camping families, travelling mates and on and on, all friends and acquaintances developed in a short life time well spent.

For people like me, it was always a warm pleasure to meet up with Gordon, no matter the circumstances. He was always approachable and friendly, and wore the widest grin for everyone. That’s how I will remember him!

He was the same throughout his illness and the harsh treatment that cancer patients go through in the process of seeking a cure, successful for some but it was not to be for Gordon.

He is going to be missed in many ways for many years to come but perhaps his legacy will be to heighten our awareness and strengthen our determination in the battle against cancer in all its forms. He could be our symbolic local hero in whose name some of our cancer campaigns will be conducted.

The Dreaded Flu Season has arrived

I know that many of you are as concerned about the H1N1 flu as I am and a bit frightened about the potential damage it might do over the next few months, particularly the possibility of the loss of life. While I personally don’t feel vulnerable because they are saying it will not do much harm to my age group, I am concerned for the younger members of my family, just as all of you are.

I received the following information in an email and since it contains good common sense information, I feel obligated to pass it along in this column.

Avoid the flu

In a global epidemic of this nature, it’s almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions so while you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, here are some very simple steps:

Frequent hand-washing (has been well highlighted in all official communications).

“Hands-off-the-face” approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat or bathe).

Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don’t trust salt). H1N1 takes two to three days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. Don’t underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee etc) as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

Listen to all the updated bulletins from the health organizations and watch for notifications of flu shot clinics coming to our communities.

The bill is in the mail, Connie says!

I received a call from Connie Dougherty telling me that she and Sonny had enjoyed a few drives over the new Golden Ears Bridge when they visited Maple Ridge and she agreed with me it was well worth the experience. She tells me they received a bill in the mail after they got home, not a big amount she said, that covered all the crossings they ahead made “so something was keeping track.”

We rode the new Canada Line!

On my adventure on the Sunday prior to the UBCM convention I also took the opportunity to ride the new Canada Line Transit from downtown Vancouver out to the airport. We have heard all the controversy about this line and very little about the efficiency and economic good sense as we get ready to entertain the world in 2010 and beyond. We bought our three-hour transit pass for $1.75 and had a wonderful adventure.

The train carried us underground right out to a bridge at the Fraser River, rose above ground to cross on the bridge and travel through Richmond to the airport.

On the same ticket, you could get off anywhere you wanted to explore and get back on at any time to continue your trip. The trains ran about every 10 minutes and the entire trip to the airport from downtown, if you stayed on was probably about 20 minutes.

Later I chatted with Peter Milobar, mayor of Kamloops, who told me how invaluable he felt this service was. He had attended a meeting in downtown Vancouver on the Saturday prior to the convention, and he said the trip from the Kamloops airport to downtown Vancouver was less than two hours and he was able to return home to Kamloops the same day without the hassle of a tiring drive.

A Second Retreat for Cache Creek Council

Our Cache Creek council has just wrapped up a day and a half in seclusion at a planning retreat where we went through the budget and discussed our plans for the Village for next year.

Using the information we gathered from the public in our Strategic Planning Session at the Community Hall, we set out our short, medium and long term goals without too much bloodletting. Actually it was a fairly calm retreat compared to some that we have had over the years!

Since we were only basically setting out the wish list, the real fights might take place during the budget sessions when we each push for our own “pet projects” as they seem to get called. This was our second retreat in the present year, the first one being a “get to know each other” session last winter. Now that our two new councillors have a bit of experience under their belts, they were able to participate in a more meaningful way.

It always takes about a year in a first term to gain the experience necessary to take part – I sure remember well my first year!

Very busy schedule for next week!

I have a very busy schedule for next week and can only hope I make it through with my sanity still intact: on Monday we have a council meeting (as does Ashcroft), on Tuesday I am presenting at the Council meeting in Merritt on behalf of the Southern Interior Local Government Association (SILGA), on Wednesday I am attending the SILGA executive meeting in the new municipality of West Kelowna, returning home to chair the Torch Relay Community Celebration Committee meeting at 7 pm in the Council Chambers (all interested persons invited) and on Thursday, Gold Country will be holding its workshop in the Cache Creek Community Hall.

On Friday, Oct. 30 I will be taking my turn to sell poppies in the Cache Creek post office and on Saturday night, Oct. 31 we will be celebrating Hallowe’en. Haven’t heard too much about that so I haven’t any information to pass along and haven’t got the time to track it down.

Call me

I just can’t seem to convince people to send me their information to pass along in this column and I simply do not have the time nor the inclination to go looking.

I have a phone (457-5328) and an email address (imakaro@telus.net) attached at the top of the column that readers are welcome to use to get their event publicized, and that’s the best I can do.