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4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, April 17, 1984 editoria | comments ~..anp NUMBER ONE ro AND ORIGINAL SCREAMPLAY » .« * RE / SCARY EFFECTS, TAX EDITING chatterbox by Cathy Robb APRIL IS CANCER MONTH I'm dying. Maybe not today or tomorrow or even next week, bub Soimekiing rue fbure peubabl ita the next b or 70 years, I'll be in a with a tombstone over my head. The tombstone will read: Reader beware as you pass by As you are now, so once was | As I am now, so you must be Prepare for death and follow me I remember that on some old and broken stone in a north of Markham, when I was in Grade Five. When I first read it, it gave me a case of the creeps so bad I never forgot it. I it was neat and figured, well, if I gotta die then at least I want a neat tombstone. Such is the Grade Five mind. And such is life that it ends in death. It's all a very natural process, really, and if we could keep that in mind and be honest with ourselves about death then maybe we wouldn't be afraid of d : Honesty, says nurse Sandy McCully, the president of the local Cancer Society, is something we ditch as soon as we realize that someone we love is dying. "Honest is one of the hardest things to be when you're human. Death is one of the hardest things to deal with, period," she says quietly, curly head tilted downward and wide brown eyes looking at the floor. Last Sunday night, Sandy had the complete atten- tionof a Group of Young people, who, until recently, had no preoccupation with dying. But since John Foote started directing The Shadow Box, a play about cancer patients (at the Latcham Centre in May), those involv- ed with the production have been to take a closer look at what it means to have cancer. And be told you only have three months to live. At John's invitat'», Sandy came to a Theatre Workshop Production at Cartwright High School, and proceeded to tell a few horror stories about being a nurse for a palin, "Dealing with is difficult and 1 do it all the time,' she says. 's anything you can do for the patient, do it, in as much comfort as possible." Her career as a nurse started some 18 years ago when she was just a student helping in an urban alan ir Only fv Years Duk Wh ae Bying roms ' ve years was the The girl didn't understand much - dy didn't know any Italian, but day after day Sandy would read her the same story, Cinderella, over and over again. It wasn't the story she wanted to hear so much, use she didn't understand it. The little girl When the girl finally died, after suffering pain most of us couldn't even begin to fathom, Sandy cried just as hard as the family. She wasn't supposed to -- after all, her teachers and training manuals told her to "be professional, detached and unemotional." But nothing in any training manual prepared her for the tragedy of a five year old with leukemia. "I guess you have to be pretty insensitive not to cry and I'm not ashamed to say I'm not," she admits. "I have to be honest and say there have been times when I have cried with a patient. I've found if you don't, vou end up c with the family." Since her first e as a student nurse, San- dy McCully has watched many e die. It's something she has never gotten to and probably never will. Each patient is different, with his or her own disease and way of dealing with the onslaught of death. From her experience though, she has learned the night hours are the worst for d tients, Terrified of being alone, many patients keep calling the nurses on unnecessary errands. She recalls one old gentleman who chain-smoked all night long, secure in the knowledge that patients couldn't smoke without so- meone else in the room. Again, it wasn't that he was in the constant throes of a nicotine craving, it was just that he needed to talk to someone. "They're not afraid of not waking up, they're afraid to die alone,' she explains. As a nurse, her first priority with dying patients is keeping them comfortable. The idea is to give them enough drugs to still the pain without putting the pa- tients unconscious. It's a balance that gets harder and harder to maintain as death draws closer, but so im- POPLAR to a parson who winks 10.eperid iia Jat few days awake. "What does it matter if he's smoking himself to death, or that he's addicted to morphine? He's already dying,' she says. 'Life has to have some value or purpose.' And contrary to what some people think, Sandy says dying patients can hear until the very end, comatose or not. What makes her angry are families or friends who stand at the foot of an unconscious patient's bed, talking like he or she is already dead. "That's terrible,' she says. "Thcy can hear what's going on. Sound is one of the last things to go. And sight. They say it is wrong to pull the shades because a com- atose patient will almost always turn towards the light. And you've always got to talk to them. People tend to whisper when people are dying, and that's not right." Her years as a nurse have been sad at times, but just as , happy. It's what has sparked her interest in the Cancer Society and it's what keeps her there. *1 guess that's what keeps me going with the Cancer Society. The hope in research." just didn't want to be alone. Lake Scugog How many times have you heard people from Port Perry and area say "our greatest natural resource is Lake Scugog?" We all agree that the lake is of immense value to this community, not only for the people who make their " homes here, but as a source of enjoyment and recrea- tion all year round for thousands of people in southern Ontario. Obviously, from the turn-out at the public meeting in the Latcham Centre last Sunday afternoon, there are a lot of people very concerned about the quality of the lake and indeed, its very future. The issue of whether the level in the lake should be raised is a complex one and it deserves very careful study of all the ramifications. The meeting Sunday was told that raising the level of the lake could result in flooding to property and farm fields, and what level of government is going to take the civil responsibility for that eventuality. On the other hand, long time residents who are familiar with the lake say the water levels are receeding to the point where it's almost impossible to get a boat in the water. And we all remember last summer when the weed growth caused a great deal of alarm. We are pleased to see that steps are being taken to set up a permanent committee to study the problems carefully and objectively. For those who want immediate action, the formation of a committee may not be the answer, but it's a start and it's better than nothing. Lake Scugog deserves as much attention as we can give it. All levels of government and private individuals have a large stake in this lake. We can't shut our eyes and pretend the problem will go away. : But we agree that something should (and must) be done to preserve the lake before it deteriorates further. it may be the most important issue to face this com- munity in a long, long time. Just try to imagine what life would be like in this area without Lake Scugog on our doorstep. The issue is too important to just sweep under the carpet. Crossing Guards A group of Port Perry mothers is convinced that changes are necessary at two school crossing sites in this community: one of them on Highway 7A at the rear of R.H. Cornish School and the other, also on Highway 7A at the intersection with Lilla Street. We can understand the feelings of this group. They are concerned about the safety of their children. We can also understand why members of Scugog Township council are reluctant to start moving guards. from one place to another. Members of council are not safety experts and they are in a position now of "damn- ed if they do, and damned if they don't." What is disturbing about this issue is that there does not seem to be a clear cut authority to make the hard decisions on where a crossing guard should be located and why. There is an over-lapping of jurisdictions that needs to be rectified one way or another. Students are involved, that makes it a school mat- ter. Public safety is involved, that makes it a police mat- ter. Provincial and regional roads are involved, that brings those levels of government into the picture. Yet the final decision on crossing guards is left to the local council, which also has to pay the bills for the service. And of course, there are the parents, whose opinions should not be taken lightly. With so many people directly or indirectly involved in such an issue, it is little wonder tha mothers in this instance feel they have been shoved from pillar to post, or ignored. The issue of who has final authority over crossing guards needs to be addressed and carefully examined. The local council has been accused of putting dollars ahead of childrens safety. This is most unfair. But the local council has a problem on its hands, and the pro- blem is making a decision on a very serious matter that will satisfy all parties concerned. And the problem is further complicated by the fact that a crossing guard at any location, or a guard on every Cornel is not going to totally eliminate the potential for anger.