THE CURSE OF ROOM 309

Late night telephone calls to our house usually fall into one of two categories. They’re either from our nighthawk friend Wai Chin inviting us to a family party or from a close relative with news that can’t wait til morning.

However, a call last Tuesday night was of a different sort.

“Hi sir. It’s Andrei. I just got the results from my biopsy. It’s confirmed. I’ve got Hodgkin’s lymphoma and will begin treatment soon. I’ll see my doctor next week to set things up.”

Suppressing my emotions surrounding Jacques’ death that afternoon, I tried to keep a blue sky demeanour.

Andrei is my protégé of sorts. A graduate from Brebeuf College, I still remember a request he made eight years ago as we walked along Bayview Avenue on our way to the grad breakfast.

“Mr. Daoust, I want to be a math teacher like you. Can you give me some texts so I can start building a set of math reference books?” he asked with a naive confidence that suggested his teaching career was a fait accompli.

Well, Andrei achieved his goal and, much to my delight, became my replacement when I retired two years ago. He took over my classroom, Room 309, a room I used shared with Ana, a religion teacher at the school.

Ana  recently had successful surgery for a stage one thyroid cancer. Now Andrei is engaged in his own cancer battle.

What an unfortunate series of coincidences…or is Room 309 the sinister common denominator here? We’ll probably never know.

In any case, Andrei is very optimistic about his prognosis and I offered him my support and experience when he begins his chemo regime. Ana and I are doing amazingly well.

Fighting cancer can be a grim business but a recent piece in the Toronto Star gives every reason to stay positive. It states;

“Every minute, someone in Ontario is diagnosed with cancer, says Paul Alofs, president and CEO of the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. But progress is being made. In North America during the 1960’s, one out of three people survived a cancer diagnosis. Today, it’s two out of three.”

Let’s continue to be engaged in the battle against this dreadful disease and keep believing that we will conquer cancer in our lifetime.