About me
This is who I am:
Nature lover. Justice seeker. Armchair philosopher.
Most in my element where decrepitude meets the poetic.
This is who I am not:
I am not courageous.
I have many fears, but disability is not – will never be – one of them.
I am not inspirational.
I revel in all of the excesses of a charmed life – privileged in work, in love, in pride, in care, in comfort.
Catherine Frazee
April, 2012
14 Comments
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The fragile and the wild 
Dear Catherine,
I appreciate all your work and love your writing. I first encountered you by watching Shameless.
How often do you get to Halifax? I am trying to get your book, Dispatches from Disabled Country into Michel Levasseur’s bookstore Carrefour Atlantic Emporium in downtown Halifax. Told UBC Press to get in contact with Michel.
Do you see Dr. Doug McKim in Ottawa? He indirectly helped me get into the PROP [Provincial Respiratory Outreach Program in BC.
When the feds first proposed their euthanasia program I wrote to every member of parliament. Only a couple acknowledged my physical letter. I had polio in a Nazi Hospital in Stettin in 1944 and walked out of the hospital alive. My brother Hansel and I were supposedly the only polio patients in that hospital. I suspect the other patients were all sent to killing centres. And I suspect the nazi doctors of the hospital didn’t have a killing category for facial paralysis, even though the poliovirus did extensive damage throughout my body as i am finding out these days. But I just find it horrific that a democratic government like Canada can’t see the danger they are putting all of us in. Every time i have to go to a hospital and I have to sign all kinds of goobly gah papers, I make sure I also print in large letters DO NOT KILL ME.
Take care of yourself.
Sincere and warm wishes
Sieglinde Stieda
ptarturswi@gmail.com
Catherine Frazee
Oh how I often think of you and wonder how you are doing
For myself life has changed so very much since I lost my partner Norman O’CONNOR
I never expected you to come to be with me when I told you he was gone
For that I’m forever thankful
I miss talking to you and sharing
Edit: sorry – that should read “eugenics” was touted back then as a benefit to society.
Hi Catherine,
I respect your work. I just read an article in today’s Times Colonist, that you wrote, about examining the dark corners of history. It wasn’t just the Nazi “programs”. As you know was widely touted in U.S., Britain and Canada as a benefit to society.
I fear that mentality seeping in. Looking at us disabled persons as a lot of sorry souls, that inconvenience society. It’s much easier to veil prejudice in pity than to really overcome it.
I am concerned, and have been since the law was passed, about including disability as a ground for assisted suicide. Imagine replacing/ or adding race or gender instead? It would be appalling, and never be there. Yet, discriminate inclusion of disability gets glossed over. Nobody, except disability rights advocates – recognize the problem with lumping it in with medical condition. They know only the medical model of disability. It appears, that is the model the court relied on, too. The UN even recently expressed concern
about this.
I would like to see motion to remove the word disability. It may help ensure that people with disabilities are given the same dignity of suicide prevention efforts, as non-disabled people. Any thoughts or ideas on where to start (or not). I was interested in this last year but dropped the ball. (Also was berated for raising the same points in discussion as you did in the Times Colonist article) – but I really feel this is important.
Kim
Kim
Hello Catherine. I’ve come to know you from your work on the topic of euthanasia and assisted suicide. I like to think I’ve thought long and hard about this matter (and others), and everything in me tells me that it is an error in logic (never mind good manners) for anyone to so vociferously try to define “dignity” for me and my loved ones. You seem like a nice person who is genuinely concerned about the well being of every person, yet when you try to make life and death decisions on my behalf, you grievously overreach.
I promise not to make life and death decisions on your behalf, but you must extend the same courtesy to me.
And if I am mistaken about my position, I have seen nothing in your writing (or anyone else’s, for that matter) that leads me to reconsider.
I don’t expect you to allow this message onto your board. I’m just hoping you might use your powerful and eloquent voice to speak for those too far gone to eloquently beg for final relief. Can you not even imagine that there are people for whom death is a sweet relief?
Dear Catherine. I was thinking of the time I worked as the janitor of Theatre Passe Muraille; a job given to me by Whitfield Slipp. I used to see you at times when you would attend plays. I remember having a delightful conversation with you one night at a local restaurant (name escapes me) around on Queen Street around the corner from the theatre. I lost touch with Whitfield after he returned to New Brunswick. In 1993, I went to China, where I taught English subjects to Chinese students. I remained in China for twenty years and returned to Canada. I live in British Columbia now. The last six years in China I worked for a medical university, where I was able to teach handicapped students, who became my heroes. Would you mind contacting me when you have the time. – Ted Margrett
How nice to hear from you, Ted. Why don’t you email me at “cfrazee at web dot net”. It would be lovely to catch up a bit!
Hi Cath,
We lost touch.
Would love to re-connect.
Please email me If and when you receive this note.
Big Hugs
Can you email me? I don’t have your address…
This beautiful woman changed my life forever.
Dear Catherine, I read your article in the daily paper today, and seeing your name really brought back memories. Your Aunt Barbara rented an apartment in my mother’s house on Elm St. in Halifax from about 1949 until she was married. I trained at the Halifax Infirmary and took my Paediatrics rotation at the (then) Children’s Hospital, and I had you as a patient there.. That would have been about 1955 or /56. Of course, I knew you father, as he visited Barb now and then. My husband and I visited Barb in Victoria in 1983, and I haven’t heard anything of her since then. She lived at our place with Eileen MacKay, and Eileen passed away last year. I’m so glad to see that you have done so much with your life, and are still living tit to the fullest. I would love to hear about your father and aunt, if you have a few minutes to reply.
Best wishes,
Patricia (Ryan) Berrigan
I greatly appreciate your article in the Star. I’m learning to redefine myself and not let others label. Thank you
I loved this article too!
Dear Catherine:
You wrote a fabulous article about Robert Latimer and the Taking Mercy Global News segment.
Alex Schadenberg