Another former editor comments on how Diane’s book underscores ‘courage, ingenuity, perseverance’
EDITOR’S NOTE: Peter Carter, who preceded Ms. Sims as editor of The Expositor and has been a working journalist for more than 40 years, has read ‘Living Beyond the Shadow’ and is sharing his observations on his colleague’s memoir’ in a review.
LITTLE CURRENT—When I was about three quarters through former Expositor editor Diane Sims’ memoir ‘Living Beyond the Shadow,’ (LBtS) I found myself on the phone with my sister Mary.
I started describing the chapter I had just finished when Mary said, “That should be required reading for anybody going into health care. Nurses, doctors, paramedics, everybody.”
She said that most young people show up at medical school having experienced hospitals and ORs only on TV. Of course that’s not reality.
“Sounds like that book would give them a taste of how it really is.”
Mary nailed it, without even cracking Diane’s book’s spine.
See what I did there?
Cracking the spine? About a book by a woman whose life has been haunted by a chain of physical challenges, ranging from and including (but not restricted to):
• Multiple sclerosis (MS), which was diagnosed when Diane was a teenager. The doctor said: “I’m afraid you have multiple sclerosis. You will be in a wheelchair quite soon, likely bedridden by the time you are 27, and dead by the time you are 35.”
• all manner of ailments as a result of the MS including vision loss in one eye and leg paralysis;
• ovarian cancer;
• preventative breast removal (this while earning a master’s degree in divinity):
• a leg broken in three places and you’re not going to believe how THAT happened, and
• more; it’s all described in full-blown saliva-and-excrement detail, not for the queasy. But real.
Yes, I made a joke. I think my friend Diane would have been disappointed if I hadn’t.
Here she is, to her pal Cin, early on in her LBtS journey, after Di loses sight in her left eye: “When God was handing out eyes, I thought he said ‘spies,’ and I hollered, ‘I’ll take mine undercover.’”
At another point, to Cin again, Diane goes: “When God was handing out legs, I thought He said ‘eggs’ and I said, ‘I’ll take mine scrambled, please.”
See what I mean?
Diane’s memoir reminds of the wounded warrior who late one night drags himself back to his platoon, exhausted, hungry, bleeding, broken, and almost dead, with two arrows sticking out of his chest. The guard asks, “You okay?” The warrior responds, “it only hurts when I laugh.”
Nobody’s ever written a book quite like “Living Beyond The Shadow.”
I’m not going to try to, like, interpret the book. I’ll leave that to Dr. Sean Blaine, of Stratford, Ontario, who penned the eloquent introduction.
I will however point out that among LBtS’s uplifting features is many references that hoist your spirits.
“I still found time to read that autumn of 1995, and the highlight was Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. My soul sang in unison with this quote: ‘And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.’ I was continuing to try and shine through the MS.”
Energizing passages like that punctuate LBtS.
Somebody once said, “Folks don’t remember what you say to them; they remember how you made them feel.”
Diane’s book fills you with hope.
My hope is that LBtS makes Diane rich. Being disabled is expensive
Plus, she keeps outwitting doom.
Diane, around the beginning of COVID, was told she’d have a year to live. Three years later, she wrote about her life often predicted) death for Macleans. The piece was a contender for Best Feature of the year at the Canadian Magazine Awards.
And then she produced this door-stopper of a book.
Is there no slowing this woman down?
Something that would definitely elevate Diane Sim to Musk-and-Bezos-level wealth would be if she could bottle and sell the courage, ingenuity, perseverance and spirit that she brings to her fight for life, happiness, love and laughter, life, as retold in “Living Beyond the Shadow.”
At one point in this colourful (including a few NSFW sections about her love life) saga, Diane is heading to Carleton U in Ottawa to earn a master’s in journalism. Her mom says, “If anyone can do it, it’s you, honey.”
No kidding.
Do yourself a favour. Come and meet this journalistic Energizer Bunny at the official Island launch of “Living Beyond the Shadow” on Wed., Nov. 20, between 4 and 7 p.m. at The Expositor office in Little Current.
Buy her book.
Ask her anything.
Just be ready for an honest answer. It might not be pretty. But you sure won’t be bored.
by Peter Carter
