Daniel (Danny) St. Andrews

A Prayer for Holly

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A few days ago, I took Holly to Gail’s place to get groomed.  I usually take her every six weeks or so, and Gail is always happy to see us when we arrive.  But a few hours later, when I came to pick Holly up, Gail wasn’t smiling.  She had a concerned look on her…

Murals that Mirror Life

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Yesterday, I met up with my friends Agnes, Leonard, and Lawrence in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant area. We were there to be a part of a guided walking tour of the 2019 Vancouver Mural Festival.  It was the first time that any of us had been to the annual festival.   We had agreed to meet at…

A Happy Hearts Reunion

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  The three of us met by chance, ten years ago.  I had just been diagnosed with stage 3 throat cancer with only a 40% chance of surviving.  At the time, I was fifty-nine years old.  As I left the oncologist’s office, I tried to remain positive, but I’ve never considered myself to be lucky. …

Birthday Greetings from LaConner

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I began my day at 2:33 am, when Holly Golightly, my dog, woke me from a beautiful dream.  I was surprised that the scene of me winning a considerable lottery didn’t happen.  But my disappointment didn’t last long – because Holly’s tail was wagging like she hadn’t seen me in three weeks.  I can’t imagine…

A Father’s Day

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One of the first things asked after meeting someone for the first time, is “Do you have any children?”.  I used to answer by saying that I have a daughter.  But in the past few years, I usually respond by saying, ‘no’ because  I find it too difficult to talk about her with strangers.  Previously,…

A May Day Call

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Today, I did what I swore I’d never, ever do. I was sitting in the waiting room of the cancer center in Vancouver, waiting for a good friend, who was having her radiation treatment and I was cursing to myself at this terrible disease.  I have known too many people who have suffered from this…

Mother’s Day

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I didn’t miss Mother’s Day last week but I did miss my Ma.  She died six hours after I called her to tell her I was coming to visit her.  And although that was September 23, 2010, my heart is still aching.   It had been almost a year since my cancer treatments and I was…

A Heron Your Shoulder

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I’d been in bed with a bad cold, for most of the week but was finally feeling well enough on Sunday, to go for a drive into the city.  There’s something about driving on a sunny day with a hot latte in hand, the sunroof open, and no particular place to go.  I always like…

A Treesome

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There is usually a lot of thought that goes into a victory speech but the only thing that I could think of to say at the time was, ‘I’m so excited, I just peed myself!’  Let me explain. Last year, I went for my first walk in LaConner, WA, with the NW Tulip Trekkers Walking…

Moonlight, S’mores & Spit

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‘Living in the dark ages’ has always been a favorite ‘comeback’ for millennials to say when asked a reasonable question by an elder.  So when I read the Bellingham Trails Meetup notice about an upcoming ‘moonlight and s’mores walk, on the shores of the Semiahmoo Spit this week, I was both confused and intrigued.  Am…