Memory of a gentle heart…

When I was little all grownups were pretty much the same. Parents, grandparents, teachers – all distant and bossy.

Except for one.

Her name was Dallas, and I think of her from time to time, even though she died when I was very young. She was a relative who, while an old woman, was far and away my favourite grownup. To this day I can see her sunny face shining down at me, her greying blonde hair dancing in the breeze. I hated going to my grandparents. Suffice it to say they were not typical. They were formal and stuffy. My grandmother was very regal. Going to her house meant wearing a white shirt, tie, jacket, grey flannels, and black leather lace up shoes. Shorts if it were summertime. Clothes designed to make little boys uncomfortable.

The only thing that took the sting out of an afternoon at my grandparent’s house was Dallas. If she was also visiting (as she often was) then everything was going to be great. She understood me. She wanted to do the things I wanted to do (which wasn’t sit still and be quiet). Like me she couldn’t stand cucumber sandwiches. She always had candy in her purse. If I knew where there was a dead bird or a wasp’s nest in the garden, she wanted to see it. While very young, I was old enough to not even suggest I’d found stuff like that to most grownups. They would get upset and I would be kept inside while the poor old gardener was sent out to deal with it. Like I said, no fun. Even today I can see her rushing down the front steps with her arms out, laughing and coming to smother me in hugs, kisses, and giggles. All that and I still liked her! I grew up, and forgot about her, as kids do.

Decades later I was having supper with my Mom when something prompted me to remember her. I asked Mother whatever happened to Dallas? “She died dear, when you were still quite young. Your father and I never told you because, as I said, you were very young.” How sad. I started to tell Mother about how much I had adored Dallas. Mother put down her cutlery and just looked at me for a minute. What? “You do know she was developmentally delayed. Profoundly so, in fact.” You could have knocked me over with a feather. I had no idea. I have learned many things in my life from books and classrooms. That was the day I learned something in my soul. My Mom went on to tell me how Dallas had been locked away most of her life, a source of shame for her family, who were distant relatives of my grandfather. She told me how Vera Perlin (now a household name in this province), a friend of my grandfather, had taken Dallas under her wing, and often brought her along when she visited. I never knew. I was too little to have learned prejudice. I remember her smile. It made me want to smile. Her laugh made me want to laugh. We were interested in the same things, and I knew she wasn’t humouring me, like most adults. They would pretend to be interested, but not Dallas. I could tell she was really interested. She was so nice. The rest of adulthood existed as a sombre, boring grey overworld in my memory, but Dallas’ face, as she knelt down to look into my face . . .

Recently I was somewhere when I overheard someone make a derogatory remark about the Special Olympics. No need to get into that here, we’ve all heard those remarks. The ignorance didn’t make me mad. It made me sad. It made me think of Dallas. In Dallas’ time that ignorance was commonplace. My Mom said Dallas had lived a difficult life, given the attitudes of the day. She was seen as worthless, a burden, an embarrassment. Imagine if attitudes had been different back then. Worthless? Six decades on she is still in my heart. It’s fashionable to complain about the times we live in – I’m certainly guilty of that in this space. Remembering Dallas reminds me that, however slowly, attitudes do change. We need to remember it’s not all bad.

~Ivan Morgan

Ivan Morgan, who can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com, is a weekly columnist in The Shoreline. In the past he has been a journalist, columnist, political researcher and worked many years in NGO’s. He has been a volunteer in one way or another his whole life. He lives in St. John’s. This article has been reprinted with permission of Ivan and The Shoreline.

L’arche Avalon music circle is buzzing!

Once a month, there is a really fun L'Arche Avalon event that happens inside the 3rd floor Music Education room in the Faculty of Education at MUN...the Music Circle! Facilitated by Jan Buley along with a wonderful new Gonzaga School assistant, Jayden, we gather for an hour and sing--and boy oh boy....we sure have FUN! This year, we've been joined by Music Education students, and they have introduced us to some really fun songs and instruments. Gail and Muggs often join us too and strum along on ukuleles or guitars and they're fabulous buddies to have. Each time we meet, we go on a hallway parade with trumpets and trombones and our time together is really special. We hope you'll consider joining us next on Sat. April 27 at 2pm. After we sing for an hour, we stop at 3pm and have cookies, fruit and juice...and that's a lovely time to meet a new friend. Try to join us on Saturday May 5! You'll be glad you did!

~ Sarah

5th Annual l’arche avalon auction

This was L’Arche Avalon’s 5th annual auction. It was our most successful fundraiser so far. Friends and families donated beautiful items, L’Arche Avalon members were generous with their time and energy setting up the auction and then gathering and organizing items for pick up after the auction. We had a crack team behind the scenes uploading items, overseeing the auction, notifying winners and creating the lists that were invaluable to our organizing the items for pickup.
So many lovely moments come out of this time that we spend together and so many wonderful encounters with people at the door.

~Lorraine

Greetings from the Chair

As Chair of the Board of Directors of L’Arche Avalon, I wish to send a big thank you to all those who supported our Annual Auction 2024 in any way. This is our biggest fundraiser of the year. Your donations of items for auction and your help in the many tasks which needed to be done before, during, and after the auction ends were invaluable.

Thanks to all our L’Arche members and friends who gave of their time to help in all areas but especially our technical people – Patti Bryant, Sarah King, Alex Noel, and Cindy Bishop – and the instigator of our auction, Lorraine Angelopoulos. After more than two months, she can now have her house back as her living room, dining room, bedroom, and garage are no longer full of auction and Yard Sale items. Thank you, Lorraine.

I send a special thank you to one of our core members, my sister Maureen, aka Tiny Mackinnon, who answered the door, did any jobs asked of her, and otherwise sat patiently for days on end while the crew sorted, photographed, catalogued, and stored the more than 500 auction items.

We wish to give a special thanks to Elizabeth Scammell-Reynolds of Reynolds Fine Art Services for consulting services in putting together the fine art section of this auction. Liz has been the province's premier art appraiser for 30 years and has set the standard for art appraisal here and across the country. L’Arche Avalon is very grateful for her on-going support of our fundraising efforts.

L'Arche Avalon Auction 2024 has been a success thanks to all of you.

The Building Committee continues the work of building inclusive family-like homes in the St. John's area for adults with intellectual disabilities. We are just waiting for a commitment from our Government for operational funding so that we can begin the Capital Campaign.

Best regards,

Sheilah

Sheilah Mackinnon Drover

become a member… come to the agm

Everyone who’d like to support the work we do in L’Arche Avalon: building a community for and with adults with intellectual disabilities and establishing the first L’Arche homes in this province, can show that support by becoming a member. The cost is $20 payable to treasurer@larcheavalon.ca or to Petra Sunner at any of our events.

You can become a member at any time, however, if you want to fully participate in our Annual General Meeting by voting, nominating someone to the Board or being nominated yourself, you must be a member in good standing for six weeks prior to that meeting. That deadline is April 28th, 2024.

Are you interested in working toward a community where everyone belongs?

L’Arche Avalon may be the organization for you.

We are looking for people who would like to join with us in supporting adults with intellectual disabilities as we strive to make communities more inclusive. We are working to build L’Arche homes in the St. John’s region, and would welcome a show of interest from anyone who would like to become a member, to work on a committee, or even to join our Board of Directors.
Go to our website to learn more about L’Arche Avalon and feel free to contact us at office@larchavalon.ca You can be sure that a member of our working Board will contact you without delay.
Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) is on June 9, 2024. It is open to everyone although in order to be nominated to the Board of Directors or to vote at the AGM you must have paid a membership fee of $20.00 by April 28th. If you attend the meeting, you will hear of the year’s work as recorded in our Annual Report and meet many of our members.

The AGM will be held Sunday, June 9th, from 3 pm - 5pm at the Lantern on Barnes Road.

Sister Mary Malloy - winner of the 50/50 draw!

St. Patrick’s Day draw. All tickets were sold and the prize was $1500 for the winner - and for L'Arche. Thanks to everyone for their support.

Swimming with the City of St. John’s and the Paul Reynolds centre

The City of St. John's is running a pilot program for swimming/pool time at the Paul Reynolds centre.

Every Tuesday for 50 minutes, all sections of the pool are available for persons with disabilities of all kinds.

The facility has a gender-neutral accessible change room with ceiling lift and adult sized change table. Additional accessible, larger sized change stalls are also available. Both lane pool and warmer water leisure pool are accessible by lifts. The leisure pool also has a beach-like gradual entry in addition to stairs. Water wheelchairs and a shower commode can be made available.

The Reynolds Centre staff are friendly and helpful. The facility is clean and user friendly with easy access to the change rooms and lockers.

We only experienced one little 'hurdle' when Anton and helpers went for the first time; we couldn't identify which of the change rooms were 'all gender'.....

They are the ones which have a large black plaque on the wall near the entrance. (See photo)

L'Arche Avalon core member Anton enjoyed his time with Jodie in the warm leisure pool - 50 minutes seemed too short for him.

Christine, Adam and Mitchell from L'Arche Avalon also participated and we hope that other L'Arche core members and friends of L'Arche with disabilities will join at times too.

Thank you to the City of St. John's and the Reynolds Centre for making the pool available for this special pilot program.

Please spread the word, so that others will participate and the City can make this program a regular part of their pool schedule.