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WATERLOO CHRONICLE The Waterloo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by The Fairway Group, a division of Southern Ontario Community Newspapers Inc., a division of Southam Publications, a Canâ€" West Company. The views of our columists are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper. Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 136379 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P2 Publisher: Cal Bosveld 886â€"2830 Fax: B86â€"9383 Eâ€"mail: wehronicle@sentex.net Ken Bosveld Deborah Crandall Associate Publisher . Editor, Ext.215 Dwayne Weidendorf . Gerry Mattice Group Sales Direcâ€" â€" Retail Sales Man tor ager, Ext. 230 Reporter, Ext. 227 Sports Editor, Ext. 229 The Waterloo Chronicle welcomes letters to the Editor They should be signed with name, address and phone number and will be verified for accuracy. No unsigned letters will be published. Submissions may be edited for length, so please be brief Copyright in letters and other mateâ€" rials submitted to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author, but the publisher and its licensees may freely reproâ€" duce them in print, electronic or other forms. Our mailing address is 75 King St. S., Suite 201, Waterloo N2J IP2. our eâ€"mail address is wchronicle@sentex_net. and our fax number is 886â€"9383 International Standard Serial Number ISSN 0832â€"3410 _ Audited <he circulation: 26,056 renumum Andrea Bailey Advertising Advertising Sales, Ext. 23 Sales, Ext. 222 Deb Duffield Karen Dwyer Norma Cyca Melissa Hounslow Letters Policy Lynn Bartol ____ Laurie fijdgw.y Manager Sales, 623â€"6617 m * â€" ht s oâ€" & J af"\ Bob Vrbanac ‘ve covered many subjects in my monthly diaâ€" Itribe in The Chronicle over the past year, but they‘ve all had a common theme: local governâ€" ment. This column is different. It‘s very personal, and it‘s a difficult one for me to write, But I think perhaps it might help others who are living through sad times. Cathy, my sister, lives â€" lived â€" in Halifax. Even though she was six years older, we had always been close. During the war years in England, while we were evacuated from the city to safety in the counâ€" tryside, she was responsible for me and 1 used to play terrible tricks on her. I ran away from our foster home regularly, and she had to tell our parents that I was missing yet again. I can remember another incident, when she wanted straight black lines painted up the back of her legs, which women did then to pretend they were wearing impossibleâ€"toâ€" find nylons. I painted on zigzag lines and let her go out without telling her. Naughty me. Nevertheless, for all my pranks and despite the difference in our ages, we had a very happy childhood. Cathy had been on dialysis for the past 12 years. But four years ago, she had to change from a cleanâ€" ing system which changed | s her blood two or three & R times a week to one that GUESI cleaned it four times daily. AINIS" It was hard, but she never |f COLU\I\ISF‘ complained and managed | | * I to get around until a few . [ months ago when her legs °s 6 .. started to give her trouble. e | This resulted in her being &-" i | in hospital for weeks at a \ time, in pain from ulcers | | that would not heal. She i ‘ called me on the night of | Feb. 19. She told me that | ‘ she felt her quality of life | had deteriorated to such I an extent that she was "â€"â€"â€"â€"=â€"=â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"* going to take herself off dialysis. By doing this she would have only a few days to live. She asked me if I minded. What could I say? We are Catholics and fully believe in the sanctity of life. Should I have told her that what she was conâ€" templating was wrong? For Cathy, it was all about the quality of life she was leading. Sorrow can bring strength In the end, I asked Cathy not to go off dialysis until I had seen her and said goodbye. 0 On Sunday, Feb. 24, with two of my sons, I flew to Halifax to say my goodbyes to my sister, with the hope that we would both gather strength and peace of mind. Cathy was in good spirits and we all had two wonderful days of talking about our earlier years and the things that had made our lives so wonderâ€" ful. Having said our goodbyes, we parted late on the evening of the 26th. My sister was calm and very much at peace. My sons and I flew back home at 7 a.m. the next day. At 5 p.m. my niece phoned to tell me that her mother, my sister Cathy, had gone to sleep after we left and had passed away peacefully in her sleep at 5 o‘ clock that morning. She had not come off dialysis so she did not have to make that decision. How very glad and grateful my sons and l were to have had a chance to talk and be with her. It made the parting much easier and I thank my sister for that. 1 have gone through loss before, when my first wife died suddenly in 1978 at the age of 49. I told myself then that when we lose someone we don‘t grieve for them, but for our loss. I still believe that, because if we believe in a greater being, we should be happy that our loved ones are going to a better life. They never really leave us; they are returning home. Why am I telling you this? I guess because it‘s good for me, and also because [ hope that others who lose their loved ones can take heart and know that those who pass on are the lucky ones. It is up to us, left behind to bear the loss, to be thankful for the wonderful times we had together. I am greatly saddened by the death of my sister, but I am also grateful for what she has given me: the strength and peace of mind to face death whenever my time comes. ho | COLUMNIST, pe wR \ i | ’\l__‘lr VIEWPOINT asoline prices have been bobbing up Ga.nd down in a fairly tight pattern, but on no account do they represent barâ€" gains. I can remember when you turned off a highway to a filling station to get a dollar‘s worth of gas. Now that takes a dollar‘s worth of gas. _ Dutch Treat: With the provincial Tory leadership convention only a couple of weeks away, Liz Witmer seems to be getting more than her share of print space and air time. Most of the recent articles zero in on how meticulous she is in the way she dress, talks, and comports herself. The point is also made that she has an iron grip beneath her gentleâ€"seeming grasp. Her flair for compromise does not operâ€" ate as a charge against her principles. She doesn‘t negotiate that way. Anyhow, the writers treat her as the possible longer shot in the race for the premiership. The way it works for journalists is this: If there‘s a chance something will happen, you write a piece in mild anticipation and, thus, you‘re covered if the unexpected happens. And it‘s a bit snide to specuâ€" late that one or more Record writers will wind up as special assistants to the premier. A bit of a surprise is the supâ€" port The Record has given, but the surprise is softened when you measure Liz against her five cabinet colleagues. Say, Mike Harris sounded a bit snarky in what‘s been labelled his swan song as preâ€" mier. He disavows any bias, but it sounds as if he‘s talking it up for Jim Flaherty. Certainly he wasn‘t leading SA the cheers for Liz and that conâ€" BA firms a rumour. The story has long been around that Mrs. Witâ€" mer and Mr. Harris are not the coziest of friends. Say, one thing you have to admire about Elizabeth is the restraint she‘s shown on her status as a longâ€"ago Dutch immigrant. As most will agree, no immigrants are held in higher esteem than the Dutch, but her pubâ€" licity is subdued. The result of the election? On the first ballot, Liz will come third. After that, who By the way, I went to a campaign dinner and 1 made the most unnessesary request in history. I asked a cabinet minister to hand me the baloney. Liz is getting her share of ink Damp Right: Water has been a prime topic previously, but has it ever been front and centre as it is now? Gosh, and some of us can recall when water pollution came every Saturday night when all of us got a bath. Policy Matter: Waterloo is figuring in bigger and bigger deals. First, it was the RIM Park financing which involved numbers akin to the population of China. Now, Waterloo is the home port of one of the companies involved in a $7.3 billion insuranceâ€"company takeover. And brethren, that is real money. Anyhow, all the folks who haven‘t been fussy about the name Clarica can quit fretâ€" ting about it because the name will apparâ€" ently vanish in a couple of years. Clarica is going to be a totallyâ€"owned subsidiary of Sun Life. Only a point in the deal that confused me was the $330 million breakup fee. That was the fee payable to Sun Life in the event the deal fell through. (It‘s a complication, bit I tell you the world is getting too complicated. Someone just gave me a batteryâ€"operated mamaaaae . paperweight!) [‘ Passing Strange: Now I know how counterfeiters feel DY when they‘re passing a bit of the D bogus. Every time I hand someâ€" one one of those new (and legit) $10 bills, I‘m afraid someone is going to snap the cuffs on me. Simply put, it doesn‘t look like our tradiâ€" tionally conservative Canadian currency â€" in those autumnal tones of brown, green and blue. The bill looks like a miniâ€"poster for a oneâ€"ring circus. Or maybe a new run of Canadian Tire currency. It‘s apparently a tribute to the war dead, but it seems a jumble of symbols, all clothed in that sickening mauve colour that domiâ€" nates the bill. But, as I‘ve said, you can still use the garâ€" ish $10 bills. Let‘s face it: There‘s only one thing money can‘t buy â€" poverty. You need a stock market to do that. Incidentally and belatedly, I think Clarica did the right thing in levelling those houses and expanding the parking lot. The area looks neater than it ever did, and a lot of organizations now have headquarters. And if things get slow in the insurance business, they can rent the parking lot out to hosâ€" pital visitors.