templetonnewsletteraug2014

Vol. 14, Issue 173 “Dedicated to Excellence” August 2014

Havana Theater is located in the rear of Havana Restaurant 60-seat theater, come half-hour early—and you can talk to Jacques Lalonde www.havanarestaurant.ca

Jose Tim Jacques Rose Ruby Deb Ollie

Orlando

STROKE of LUCK The Orpheum Annex—August 20, 2014

On July 1, 2013, Jacques Lalonde

has a stroke that left him without

the use of his right arm and right

side of his face. Stroke of Luck uses

Jacques’ renowned storytelling

skills to give us an inside look at

how the brain works and the diffi-

cult road to recovery. We learn

about the value of reaching out to

fiends, staying positive and see

some of the crazy exercises one has

to do get back to ‘normal.’

Stroke of Luck gives us hope,

inspires us to see the beauty of life

in new ways, and will help develop

your Christopher Walken imper-

sonation. Will Jacques be to use his

right hand again? Will he ever able

to sing? What can he now do with

his left hand that he couldn’t do

before? All will be revealed with

the charm and wit Jacques is famous

for in his storytelling.

JACQUES LALONDE

Jacques Lalonde has performed for

over one million people at almost

www.templetonstrokerecovery.com

August 2014 Volume 14, Issue 173

Page 2

STROKE OF LUCK— A Play by Jacques Lalonde Templeton Newsletter

Mailing Address:

204– 2929 Nootka Street,

Vancouver, BC V5M 4K4 Canada

Published every month, if possible. Contributions are always welcome. The articles should be in, not later than day 25th day of every month.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in Stroke Recoverer’s Review newsletter: articles, submissions and spot-lights are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Templeton Stroke Recov-ery or the editor of Stroke Recov-erer’s Review. Editor reserves the right at any time to make changes as it deems necessary. It is the purpose of this periodical to share a variety of viewpoints mostly from

stroke survivors & volunteers.

August 2014 Contributors: Ollie Stogrin Deb Chow Karel Ley Jim Walmsley Werner Stephan Jose Suganob

Production of SRR:

Jose Suganob

Inside this issue:

Stroke of Luck

2

Templeton Happenings 3

BLAST Monthly Dinner BLAST 2015 Ad

4

Recipe

Jimy’s I-jokes 5

The Old Man of the Mountain

6

Stroke of Luck? (1989) by Jose Suganob

7

“There’s life after stroke”

every major festival in BC including Vancouver

International Storytelling, Children’s Dragon-

boat, and Comedy Festivals, Vancouver and

Surrey First Night, The Festival of Dreams,

Prince Rupert Comedy Festival.

He is the only recipient of a Lifetime Achieve-

ment Award from the Vancouver International

Fringe Festival and has been in over 20 Best of

the Fringle and holdovers including A Closer

Walk With Jean Chretien, How I learn to Drive,

The Kenny Rodgers Experience and A Short His-

tory of My Life as a Bear. He also was the host

for LIVE CITY VANCOUVER at the 2010

Olympic Games.

TEMPLETON Group went to see Stroke of

Luck…8/20/2014

Ollie Stogrin, Ruby Gill, Orlando, Rose, Deb

and I went to see Jacques Lalonde’s play

Stroke of Luck.

I went via Skytrain, to Granville Station and

went to east of Seymour Street until I found

the Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour St.)

there’s an usher and he told me the Orpheum

Annex was on the 2nd floor. The building is

fairly new so, it has an elevator (that’s good

because of my scooter).

I came early and talked to Tim Readman

(Exec. Dir. SRABC) and Margaret Hansen

(Coquitlam Branch Coordinator) came, too.

And, Templeton Group also came and we

watched the play (we’re on front row).

Jacques’ really is a good story teller. With

the charm and wit, he gave us an inside look

how the brain works and the difficult road to

recovery. He is a stroke survivor, too.

—Jose Suganob, Stroke Survivor

Templeton Stroke Recovery

This our first year that

Templeton has been

opened in month of

August in 20 years!

And, Templeton Stroke

Recovery is 20 years old, this Sep-

tember!

We started our group at Trout Lake

Community Center. Then, Trout

Lake CC was not the beautiful

center as it is today. We were there

for a year. That’s where we met

Jose. At that time Jose was just

starting to recover his speech.

Key’s mom, Jean, was a member

there that’s where I met as my

husband, John, was also a new

stroke survivor and we joined the

stroke recovery group. After about

a year, my husband wasn’t happy

attending the group. He said, “It

was boring.” After about a year,

there were some ups and downs.

We decided move our group to the

Britannia Community Center. (Jose

stayed for one year at Trout Lake

because he was the Bingo caller–

for his speech improvement). He

moved one year later. Thelma

Bramwell, volunteer, moved with

us. John Boynton, stroke survivor,

joined our group and Michelle

MacDonnell, volunteer, also joined

us (she lives now in Ontario & isn’t

well).

So, we started at Britannia CC.

Only we grew our space and

Templeton Park Pool had an Activity

room– the space we needed. That’s

where Templeton Stroke Recovery

was born! Hard to believe 20 years


TEMPLETON HAPPENINGS...

have gone by so fast! At Britannia CC

that’s where our lunches started as our

volunteers didn’t have enough money

for lunch and in order to have volun-

teers, we had to feed them. Twenty

years later we are still doing ‘hot’

lunches. I didn’t keep track of the

amount of soup that I have made in

twenty years time. Didn’t think that I

would become a soup expert. Ahhh!

We have a lot of history since we

started, maybe? One day I will write a

book?

Anyway, I hope our members enjoyed

the August opening. And, I do hope

everyone enjoyed also our yearly picnic

We have been having our picnic for a

number of years at Trout Lake. Only

this year, it was at Templeton Park,

which was nice and it seemed the

members enjoyed having it there.

Usually, we have August off and we

all have a break but the members

wanted to have August meetings.

We want to welcome a number of

new members: Katherine, Noreen,

Rose and Germaine. I don’t think we

formally welcomed them. Rose Funke

from Langley (w/ daughter Karen)

came during the month of August.

Also new volunteers: John, Paul,

Keila and Debbie.

I’m sorry to say Gabriel has a broken

hip and Don isn’t feeling very well.

Also, we haven’t seen John B lately.

All three haven’t been attending. We

hope they will be on the mend and

join us soon. Helen been having many

appointments so, she hasn’t been

attending along with Key, her care-

giver.

It is summer vacation for some of our

members. Hopefully September will

be normal again. I might catch up to

most of our members soon. Enjoy the

rest of summer!

—by Ollie Stogrin (Branch Pres) Templeton Stroke Recovery

TEMPLETON STROKE RECOVERY

Templeton Stroke Recovery are dedicated

to helping stroke survivors (stroke survi-

vors helps new stroke survivors) re-

integrate into their community and to

provide support for them and their care-

givers With committed volunteers and

offer a variety of activities and services.

Our Mandate: To offer stroke survivors

and their families the social, emotional,

mental, and physical.

We do: Gentle exercises (Jeanie’s ala-Tai

Chi-she is stroke survivor), volunteer

speech therapist, music therapy, We have

speakers ion different issues. We hold

discussion on health topics.

Games: Some people might think its only

game for fun but more that example:

Nognz Bra in Fi tne ss (ht tp :/ /

www.nognz.com), games for memory,

word skills, coordination, critical think-

ing, and focus. Dr. Justin Davis (PhD,

Neuromechanics). He went to Easter

Camp to inspire people to challenge them-

selves with new brain exercises, activities

and to stimulate key brain functions.

Participate with other stroke survivors in

activities designed to broaden your physical

creative side of your body. Templeton

motto: “There’s life after stroke” .


www.templetonstrokerecovery.com Page 3


Stroke Survivors, Care-

givers, and Friends!

Come, join us for dinner!

Monday, Sept.15, 2014

Dinner starts at 6 pm

Moulin Rouge Restaurant (before Tom & Jerry Restaurant)

2828 E. Hastings St, Vancouver, BC (Near PNE)

Entrees are $10 and beverages are

bottomless

Come, have a BLAST and

watch our slideshow

(We will be there with our slideshow on the

15th day of every month)

It is an opportunity to meet our

BLAST Ambassadors, have a few

laughs, and a BLAST (Building Life After Stroke Together)

Drops ins welcome, RSVP preferred (Please let me know if you are

coming so I can give the restaurant a

heads up)

Phone: Deb 604-253-2390

There’s lots of room for

wheelchairs and scooters

BLAST MONTHLY DINNER

Page 4 www.templetonstrokerecovery.com

DELTA BRANCH—

On July 10/14, Delta community sup-

porters gathered to raise funds for the

Stroke Recovery group, the 3rd such

event organized by Delf Wine Importers

and many volunteers of the stroke club

who made all the appetizers and

manned the event from noon until 9

p.m.

Shown in picture are Vicki Huntington

(MLA for Delta), who is advocating

on our behalf for services from Fraser

Health Authority Assistant coordina-

tor, Judith McBride and our ongoing

fabulous coordinator, Dawn Sillett,

who we to thank for our wonderful

monthly programs in addition to working

all day non-stop on this event.

The event featured the tasting of about

2 dozen wines and every bottle

ordered , Delta-SRABC receives the

proceeds. In addition, there was a raf-

fle of a stocked wine fridges, a 50/50

draw, and proceeds from a silent auction

from a silent auction which was beau-

tifully displayed in the garden.

A few hundred people attended and the

event was a huge success socially To date

we do not yet have a total of the monies

raised as the Delf Wine group extended

the purchasing time to early August. An

announcement will follow

eventually.

—By Karel Ley, Volunteer Delta-SRABC

REE at ROO (Sept 9th, 2014)—

Rehab Equipment Expo at the Rich-

mond Olympic Oval – 6111 River

Road, Richmond BC on September

9th, 2014.

Admission is $2.

There will be a shuttle including

HandyDarts, from the SW corner of

Lansdown Mall parking lot.

There are 90 exhibitors. (BLAST is

#80)

Resource people who are acknowl-

edge experts in their fields will be

available to answer your questions.

Each person will be at the designated

table for one hour at the time indi-

cated. They have been asked not to

make a presentation, instead you can

cut to the chase and pick their brains.

A print out of exhibitors and free

admission form can be found on

TurtleTalk.ca

10 Best Self-care Tips

Avoid over thinking

Stop pushing. Accept what is.

Create joyful rituals.

Forgive yourself and others.

Expand your mind by reading,

learning, imagining, & creating

Watch less TV.

Retreat and Reflect.

Stay close to nice people.

Eat plenty of fruit & vegetable,

limit red meat, sugar, & alcohol

Walk. Rest. Laugh. Breathe. “There’s life after stroke”

Other Happenings...


Page 5


JIMY’S INTERNET JOKE—joke only? page RECIPE: Chicken Noodle Casserole

Sears Catalogue (only in

Newfoundland)

Two guys from New-

foundland were looking at

a Sears Catalogue and admiring the

models.

One says to the other, “Have you

seen the beautiful girls in this cata-

logue?”

The second one replies, “Yes, they

are very beautiful...and look at the

price!”

The first one says, with wide eyes,

“Wow, they aren’t very expensive. At

this price, I’m buying one.”

The second Newfie, smiles and pats

him on the back. “Good idea! Order

one and if she’s as beautiful as she is

in the catalogue, I will get one, too.”

Three weeks later, the one Newfie

asks his friend, “Did you ever receive

the girl you ordered from the Sears

catalogue?”

The second Newfie replies, “Nope,

but it shouldn’t be long now! I got

her clothes yesterday!”

—joke shared by Jimy Walmsley, Stroke Survivor

George Carlin says:

We drink too much, smoke too

much, spend too recklessly, laugh

too little, drive too fast, get too

angry, stay up too late, get up too

tired, read too little, watch TV too

much.

We have multiplied our possessions

but reduced our values. We talk too

much, love too seldom, and hate too

often. We’ve learned how to make a

living but not a life.

We’ve added years to life, not life to

years. —George Carlin, comedian

Ingredients:

1 ................ Large onion, diced

1/4 cup ....... Butter

3 (10 oz) cans, Chicken chunks

1 pint ......... Sour cream

2 (10.75 oz) cans, Condensed

cream of chicken and mushroom

soup

3 cups ........ Cheddar cheese,

shredded

1 (8 oz) package, Uncooked egg

noodles

4 oz ............ Buttery round

crackers, crushed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

(175 degrees C). In medium

skillet, fry onion in butter until

softened. Pour into 9x13 baking

dish.

2. In large bowl, combine chicken

chunks, sour cream and soup.

Stir in 2 cups of shredded ched-

dar. Stir in uncooked egg noo-

dles. Pour mixture over onions

in baking dish. Top with crum-

bled crackers and the remaining

cheddar.

3. Bake 30 minutes, or until top is

golden and noodles are soft.


“STRESS is an ignorant state.

It believes everything is

an emergency.”

“IF TODAY is the worst DAY

of your life

Then, you know tomorrow

will be better.”

Before you quit, try

Before you talk, listen

Before you reason, think

Before you criticize, wait

Before you move on, forgive.

“Ain’t that the truth, eh!”

ted.’ Whatever that means?! The faith of

sects of Islam is rather complex. Some

even deny that any branches of the Is-

maeli religion is not part of Islam. Many

of the tales of Alamut are tales of adven-

ture, which attract the imagination of a

boy, like me many years ago.

Alamut was destroyed in 1256 AD by

Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis

Khan.

Uprising against oppressors, tales of

paradise and assassins, mysterious

strongholds and an even more mysteri-

ous ‘old man of the mountain,’ does that

all not sound like a great adventure

story? Best of all: it is all true! What is

life without an exciting adventure story?

—by Werner Stephan, Stroke Survivor

North Shore Stroke Recovery Center

(West Vancouver Group)

PERSIAN EMPIRE

Iran used to be Persia, but the Persian

empire before are surrounding countries

around Iran now: Azerbajan, Turk-

menistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan

Kyrgyzitan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan,

Pakistan and Bhutan to name a few.

The Old Man of the Mountain —by Werner Stephan, North Shore Stroke Recovery Center - West Vancouver Group


Page 6


When I was a boy some

Persian friends of mine

introduced me to a

popular tale, which, as it

turned out, is mostly true, the

tale of the castle of Alamut. You

have not heard of it? Neither had I

before my friends told me about it. It

appears that it is a tale, widely

known throughout the Middle East,

especially in Persia. The ruins of

Alamut are about 1,000 years old.

The government of Iran is trying to

restore them and make them more

accessible for expected tourists. That

is why, I think, that we will eventu-

ally all hear about the ruined castle.

The subject was romanticized by a

book written in 1938 by Vladimir

Bartol, a Slovenian writer, but it was

not translated into English until 2004.

It is a story of an uprising by a Per-

sian branch of the “Nazari Ismailites”

against their Turkish rulers around

1100 AD.

The founder of the mountain strong-

hold was Hassan ibn Sabbah, who

ruled Alamut between 1090 AD and

1124 AD. He was one of the most

colorful masters of Alamut castle.

Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler,

visited Alamut in the year 1272 AD,

years after its destruction. Most of

the information about the castle and

Hassan are from his account ‘The

Adventures of Travels.’ The castle

did not survive but the stories about

Hassan did. (Marco Polo was one of

the first Europeans to visit Alamut

on his way to China, and the first

traveler to leave detailed reports

about his experiences).

Hassan and Alamut became notorious

as the master and the home of the

‘assassins,’ as they were known.

Many stories were told about Hassan

ibn Sabbah and Alamut and the assas-

sins. Potential followers of Hassan were

given drug (hashish?) and lived in a

beautiful garden at Alamut, where their

every wish and desire was fulfilled by

beautiful maidens. After being drugged

again and returning from the

garden, the potential assas-

sins were told by Hassan that

they were given a glance of

paradise and that any of his

followers who died in his ser-

vice would return to it. When

‘The Old man of the moun-

tain,’ as Hassan was called,

wanted to kill someone, he

would take the potential as-

sassin and tell him to ‘go and do this

thing because I want to return to para-

dise, if you get killed in my service.’

The assassin would go and perform the

deed willingly.

Hassan is reported to have said that:

‘Nothing is true, everything is permit-


A video game: Is that what a typical Assassin of Alamut looked like?

X

My “Stroke of LUCK” Story (1989)—by Jose Suganob, Stroke Survivor, Templeton Strroke Recovery


Page 7



Before 1989, my life was eat, work,

sleep. Routine, my life was. It’s April

1989, at home after working,

I was having bit of supper before I

went to Queen Elizabeth Park tennis

courts. My tennis friends were wait-

ing for me. It was 6pm. Windy and

we were playing ‘doubles.’ Then,

suddenly, there was something

wrong with my body. I felt numb on

the right of my body. I tried to go to

nearby bench but I couldn’t. So, I laid

on the cement floor of tennis court

and my tennis friends were also won-

dering what happened to me. I can

still talk and told them to phone para-

medics (was still years ahead of cell

phone). In five minutes, the paramed-

ics came and checked me and the

ambulance carried me to Emergency

-VGH. That’s all I could remem-

bered. I woke-up three days after

(they did an operation, 11pm that

night). I had a hemorrhagic stroke; a

vein in my brain burst. My brain

circuit were in a jumble.

I waited in Vancouver General

Hospital for my rehabilitation at GF

Strong Rehab Hospital but during

those times, so many were waiting

to have bed space at GF Strong Rehab

Hospital. After two months waiting,

doctors tried other hospital rehab and

Holy Family Rehab has one space.

There, I was: on a wheelchair, the

right side was paralyzed, still cannot

talk. I said to myself, “In six months,

I will be as good as before my

stroke.” How wrong I was?!

Speech Language & Occupational

therapists started my rehabilitation.

Speech recognition & exercises to

have my strength back again. And

me starting to walk again. After five

months, my rehabilitation was to be able

to walk short distance with a cane. And,

I went home at last. But, my speech will

take another three years. I had to relearn

my speech again (especially English, my

second language) from the very begin-

ning like a child (again?). My ‘angry’

and ‘why me’ stage: three years after my

stroke operation, struggled with my

speech therapy for one year

(government’s one year speech therapy)

going to Holy Family Rehab for

Speech therapy every week, maybe it

helped. During this time, I found out that I

can sing but I can not talk. Maybe the

singing part of the brain (it’s the right

brain for singing and left side for speech)

was telling me, you can do it! To speak

again. I practiced Karaoke in my room

so that, I won’t be disturbing any-

one. Karaoke songs have words to follow

and it was better for me to read the

songs. Practice and more practice makes

a better singer. I, for one, attest to that.

By the fifth year after my stroke,

I became a member of Trout Lake-

SRABC and went to their meetings every

Thursdays for 4 hours. We played

Bingo for therapy recognition of

words and numbers. I had a hard time

distinguishing number, the would will

tell, it is 58 and my mouth open, out

comes word 56. The volunteer did was

brilliant and I was bingo caller from

then on. You have say it loud and

clear for everybody to hear. Little by

little, I was relearning my speech again.

Before my stroke, every fourth word of

my sentences was a swear word and I

really don’t noticed it. Now, I try to re-

duce the swear word to zero. In this

time, I went to Templeton Branch-

SRABC. And, I studied Desktop Pub-

lishing by correspondence and in two

year time, graduated and in 1998, started

our newsletter but it is another long

story.

For my hobbies, one was dabble in

acrylic paintings after my stroke experi-

ences (it was a pass time at first). Now,

I’m a member of AhA Coop and our

studio is in 7724 Royal Oak Avenue,

Burnaby, BC . In 2004, one of my

painting ‘Community of Abodes’ was

bought by United Way and printed it on

background of their certificates

(Scotiabank and United Way Commu-

nity Award). Every recipients got a cer-

tificate with my painting on the back-

ground. I really didn’t expected to be on

early morning event at Grand Ballroom,

Westin Bayshore in Vancouver and sat

at the VIP table (2004).

Every year, 8,000 new stroke survivors

come from the hospitals in British Co-

lumbia, Canada home. Being one of

stroke survivors of Templeton Branch -

SRABC helps new stroke survivors

integrate to the community. Stroke sur-

vivors will meet challenges on stroke

recovery. It is a life long struggles,

filled with setbacks, and also, of achieve-

ments, no matter how small.

I know that now and still on the road to

stroke recovery myself…

—Jose Suganob, Stroke Survivor

Templeton Branch –SRABC

Templeton SR got new stroke survivors. Maybe my stroke story of recovery will help and ease the difficult road to recovery. Templeton Stroke Recovery helps the new stroke survivors integrate to the community. Our programs (most people see it as games only) But, really it are games of concentration. Gentle exercises, a volunteer speech therapist, speakers, holds discussions on health topics. We used to have a volunteer music therapist & I learned a lot from him. Volunteers and stroke survivors help new stroke survivors. For more information, go to the Internet: click: www.templetonstrokerecovery.com

templetonnewsletteraug2014

Documents

wit jacques

stroke survivors volunteers

right hand

templeton happenings

festival of dreams

major festival

templeton group

theres life