Caregiver with artist's soul

Michèle Anderson, 67, helped care for Parkinson's patients until she became one herself

By: Kevin Rollason

Sometimes, life really can go in full circles.

Michèle Christine Anderson was a registered nurse — and a very good one by all accounts — who spent most of her career helping people with dementia and Parkinson’s disease at a special unit at the former Foyer Valade in St. Vital (now Actionmarguerite).

When she died at 67 on Dec. 7, from Parkinson’s (which she had lived with for two decades), she was being cared for in the same unit where, for years, she had looked after so many other people — until illness forced her to leave the job she loved.

"It was just one of those twists of fate," said her husband of 40 years, Tom. "She worked in the specialized unit there and she spent most of her nursing career there. And, with her Parkinson’s, she needed to be looked after there at the end."

Between her diagnosis and death, and from when she was born, Anderson packed in a lot of living.

For her 65th birthday celebration, she gave a note to all of her friends detailing her look on life: "Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we should dance."

"In some ways, once she was diagnosed and could no longer work, she started doing what she liked to do," said her daughter, Natalie Blerot.

"I had no idea she like to paint until she did... She painted a gazillion roosters and most would be customized to the person she was painting it for. For my son, Jacques, a rooster in a hospital bed, hooked up to a Tim Hortons (branded) IV because he loves coffee... She chose a personality or physical trait of the person receiving it."

Much of Anderson’s artwork was gifted to family and friends, and some for fundraisers for the local Parkinson’s society. She also sold her watercolours at Village Antique and the Wayne Arthur Gallery in Winnipeg. Her solo show at the gallery was titled: Mirapex Moments, Art as My Therapy.

Mirapex, a drug used to enhance other medications used to treat Parkinson’s, has a side-effect of compulsive behaviour; her family often said Anderson’s prodigious amount of artwork could be due to its influence.

Anderson was known for her caring spirit, and it came naturally to her when she was still a child in St. Lazare. Born to Christine and Arthur Fouillard in 1952, Anderson was the oldest of nine (four girls, five boys).

"Family legend has it she was a toddler when she was looking after the young ones in the family," Tom said.

Anderson’s sister, Mona Motuz, said one summer their mother was so ill, she spent weeks in a Winnipeg hospital.

"She was always pretty much in charge," Motuz said. "They (Anderson and sister Danielle Moreau) kept us in our bathing suits all that summer and kept us outside so they didn’t have to clean the house. They fed us hot dogs and buns."

"Today, someone would probably call child care (authorities), but it was a different world," Danielle said. "In the village, there were aunts, uncles, friends and neighbours we could turn to in cases of need. We weren’t abandoned by our parents."

Danielle said her sister was generous, determined, hard working and empathetic.

"She had a lot of experience as a caregiver at a very young age... She worked as a nurse for about 10 years and managed to become charge nurse, appreciated and respected by the residents, as well as the personnel."

Post-high school, Anderson spent a few years working with the federal immigration department in the basement of the old Winnipeg International Airport terminal. That’s where, in 1978, she met a student hired for the summer who would become her husband a year later.

"It was one of those love-at-first-sight things," Tom recalled. "She was just a real strong and independent type. She had a really great work ethic and she loved helping people."

In 1984, with three children in the household, Anderson decided to follow her dream and become a registered nurse. She didn’t count on becoming pregnant during the second year of the two-year program.

"It was something she always wanted to do and it was an occupation she was well-suited for," her husband said.

"She wrote her final exam the one day, and had (fourth child) Tom the next day."

Lise Hamelin, former Foyer Valade director of nursing, said Anderson was "the ideal nurse for a director of nursing to have."

"She was very competent. She was a very intelligent person. She was a good leader for the health-care employees who were under her... And she was good with the residents... She knew when to celebrate and she knew when to become serious."

Tom said his wife began seeing doctors after he noticed during their nightly walks she was dragging her foot a bit. It took awhile but, after the process of elimination, the diagnosis of Parkinson’s came.

Tom said the first blow for Anderson was having to leave the job she loved — and the second hit just as hard.

"A doctor asked her to put her foot on the floor. She just couldn’t. The doctor was quite shocked by that; he said she shouldn’t be driving. That’s when we really knew this is something serious. She was still in her forties," he said.

"It is a progressive disease. It wasn’t a straight-down decline. There were ups and then bigger downs, but she got a lot of living in those 20 years."

Natalie said the family is thankful her mother was able to spend her last days at the place she had loved to work at, in a place where she had her own room and view of the Red River.

"She was there a month. It was a blessing she went there... they were so good with compassionate care."

Besides her husband, Anderson is survived by three daughters, a son, nine grandchildren, her mother, and four brothers and three sisters.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

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