Posts with the Pennsylvania tag

Barris Beat

An international day for aunts too

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Mary Kontozoglus with her grandchildren, Christmas 2020.

The family had gathered from all over the continent. Some from Maryland. Others from New York and Florida. We had travelled from Toronto to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where my mother’s “baby brother” George was getting married to his fiancée Mary. But I had a problem.

“The battery in my camera’s dead,” I moaned. “And I want to take pictures of the wedding tomorrow.”

Since we were all foreigners to Allentown, except Mary, my future aunt, none of us knew where to buy replacement batteries except for her.

“I can help,” Mary said. Remember, this is the eve of her wedding to the family’s favourite uncle. So, no doubt, she had a million things on her mind. (more…)

Barris Beat

Democracy in the details

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Dr. Anand Doobay, at Markham-Stouffvile Hospital, an epicentre in the fight to save lives in a pandemic.  CBC News photo.

The point-of-view of the camera shows us whisking through a door with a “restricted access” sign on it. Around the gurney-in-motion, doctors, nurses and orderlies wear full personal protective gear, as we zoom down a hospital corridor. The CBC News reporter voiceover describes the medical staff coping with Markham-Stouffville Hospital’s COVID-19 case load.

“It’s like (the staff) is going to war,” reporter Wendy Mesley says. “Only they never know if they will win or lose.” (more…)

Barris Beat

One cool life

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Kay Barris at the Lake Simcoe cottage c. 1960.
Kay Barris at the Lake Simcoe cottage c. 1960.

My sister Kate, my wife Jayne and I sat at her bedside, the same way we have almost daily these past six months. That day, last Thursday, the world was acknowledging the tragic loss of many lives on Sept. 11, 2001. We were marking the loss of one life. My mother – Kay Barris – had died minutes before we arrived about midday. We felt myriad emotions. Sadness. Loss. Some relief that the pain in her weary and withering body had ended. Then, a hospital social worker appeared, passed on condolences, smiled and offered an epitaph of my mother.

“She was one, cool chick,” Brenda Stein said.

(more…)