She had a lifelong battle with MD (Muscular Dystrophy), but she didn’t let it stop her from earning her BSc from Trent University and her B.Ed from Queen’s. She also, after we became peers and she became my mentor, earned her screenwriting degree from Screenwriting U, which I also took at her encouragement. (It was intensive and demanding.) She went on to take the advanced masters course and ended up advising me on a screenplay I was having trouble with.

As I say, we progressed from teacher and student to peer and mentor, always friends.

She was in the throes (and I do mean throes) of having her first screenplay produced—in North Bay! (lots of films being produced there)—delayed, of course, by budget restraints but mainly by the producer’s private life (going through a messy divorce). Always always she was delayed and hampered by her MD and her tight budget; she lived on a disability pension. I don’t know how she did it but she managed to get to L.A. at least once, where she met and had her picture taken with Scott Bakula! Amaziing!

I miss her.