Conversations

When Darda Sales dipped her foot into the world of competitive swimming she found her lane. But she didn’t stay in just that one. Never afraid to fail, for her, life is all about learning.

Jason Lucci feels very fortunate. Not because the pasta-making machine that took his hand didn’t take more. And not because his amputation veered his life in a better direction. Family, fortitude and funding are what he is grateful for as part of his recovery.

He’s been a session player for greats like Frank Zappa and Chuck Berry but most remember him for his stints playing with the legendary Ronnie Hawkins Elephant Band in Toronto’s Nickelodeon.

In a hospital delivery room giving birth to her third child, Joy Rodriguez wasn’t expecting to hear the words her husband calmly and lovingly whispered in her ear after their second son entered the world.

June 9, 1994. A date that left an indelible mark on Craig Tourangeau’s mind and body. Twenty-odd years later he remembers every detail of that spring morning in Nanaimo like it was just yesterday.

The happily married, 56-year-old mother of three grown children is matter-of-fact about her missing limb. But it wasn’t always that way.

Four years ago, Christine Caron, a middle-aged Ottawa woman, saw life as she knew it shockingly transformed, but the monumental changes were not as tall as her towering spirit.

Aristotle Domingo looked at his life in 2017 and thought, “No, this can’t be it,” and then did something about it. “I was a new amputee then and I found myself sitting on the couch, out of shape.