My Big Brother, Bruce

(myself, my mom and Bruce - July 19, 2007)

My sister inlaw Kristin had forward to me two articles written in their local newspaper about my brother Bruce and his work at his school. Not that I am not proud of my brother's accomplishments - but after reading these two articles, my heart bursts of pride - you know the feeling where you want to yell from the hilltop - Hey that is my brother Bruce!!

My brother is a Special Education teacher in a highschool - his students are behavioral, but mostly they are students with physical or mental challenges. I was in my last year of college (1991) when Bruce headed to Southern Ontario to accept a position as a Special Ed teacher - his students were Class 3 Cerebral Palsy students (Class 3 is the highest stage for this disease). Definitely a challenge - but he was up for it. When he came home for Christmas that year, he brought photos of his students. His students had the classical characteristics of CP - the tilting of their heads, the drooling and by this stage also have other diseases like epilepsy. With the help of his teacher aides as well as the one on one - some of them saw improvements in that short period of time - such as less prominent head tilts or less drooling. The image that I still hold today - the smiles - despite the adversities they face everyday - you can see they are happy. I asked Bruce - so what is your secret - "Treat them like a human". Simply concept isn't? Soon afterwards, Bruce started a Lunch Buddy program - matching his students with someone of the school student body. It started off slow but has near 70 participants to date!! It is a wonderful program has it helps breakdown the stereotyping of "challenged people" to "teenagers - young people" - they are just like you and me - human.

When I was in Toronto in April, I was able to visit with Bruce and Kristin. While there, Bruce had to make some phone calls as the day before one of his students had suddenly passed away. The first article written was about the memorial bench Bruce arranged to have placed at the school in memory of this student. It was beautifully written. The most recent article came from after an orientation interview of a student attending the school in September. Bruce was observant and noticed that this student's wheelchair had seen better days. With the help of Bruce's neighbours, they "souped up" the wheelchair to look like a Harley Davidson. The guy loved it - he was just so happy it wasn't pink! In the article, it mentioned that it was Bruce and his neighbours who had refinished the memorial bench. Wow!!

When my mom was in Toronto for Kathryn's cancer treatments, I became Bruce's secretary for typing up his lesson plans, tests to give on practicum and university papers. One of the papers I typed up was Bruce's resume. He mentioned that he was inspired by his sister Kathryn to work with those with physicial challenges. You see - Kathryn had to have her whole arm amputated due to the cancer. It is so cool to know what I wrote in that paper in the beginning of his career, has become a reality for me.

What has Bruce's example shown to me? One person can make a difference in one's life. The simply act of kindness, compassion and helpfulness can make a world of difference to someone else. If you can't tell - I love my brother Bruce very much. Thanks for being my big brother Bruce!!