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Our Honorary Chair:
Anne Anderson
Amongst so many other things, Anne Anderson (nee Wotowic) was a loving mother, a dedicated advocate of the rights of the dying, and a committed Home Hospice Association (HHA) volunteer. Her passion for HHA's mission and perseverance in the face of overwhelming obstacles resulted in the very first Moonlit Memory Walk taking place in 2017.
Six years later, we remember that she lived with fierce passion and love for her family, friends, and her work, as well as a deep desire to see positive changes in end-of-life care across Canada.
Born in 1963 in Chicopee, Massachusetts, Anne graduated from her university Summa cum laude in Neurobiology. After graduating, she was elected into the Scientific Research Honour Society of North America, Sigma Xi, due to her noteworthy achievements in her field.
Anne met Larry Anderson when she was working at a bank while in university. Anne and Larry married and had three children: Melanie, Kyle, and Anneliese. The family moved to Georgia and then on to Toronto in 1996. After Larry’s death in 2007, Anne was left to raise her three children alone.
After years of being a stay-at-home mom, at 38, Anne became an account representative, successfully running events like the Toronto National Women’s Show.
Anne loved to cook, and her perogies were very well known in family and friendship circles as the “hit” of any gatherings. She was a huge Science Fiction fan, a devoted “Trekkie”, and passionate about reading. A championship tennis player, she continued her physical fitness throughout her life, and greatly enjoyed trail-walking and hiking.
Anne was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer in 2005 and underwent treatment to help her live, while continuing to work to support her three children. She also continued volunteering at Aurora Pantry. Her daughter, Melanie, remembers going to the Pantry with her mom when she was young: “It was important to her to help people. And she always instilled in us that you stick with your commitments.”
In 2012, after having been cancer-free for about 6 years, Anne was diagnosed with pneumonia, which continued for months. One day, when she had coughed so hard that she broke a rib, her doctors discovered that they had misdiagnosed her. Breast cancer had not only returned, but had metastasized to her lungs and spine. She underwent chemotherapy again and it cleared her lungs but then the cancer metastasized to her ovaries and brain.
It was around this time that Anne, having met an HHA volunteer at an event, decided to contact HHA co-founder, Tracey Robertson. They met over spring rolls, and Anne quickly joined forces with HHA to help bring awareness to the huge gaps in hospice care across Ontario and all of Canada.
The first project Anne helped with was HHA’s “Infant and Pregnancy Loss Doula” training weekend. Not only did Anne manage to secure enough gift card donations from local supermarkets to cover the weekend’s catering costs, but Tracey recalls that, “right after she had radiation treatment at Sunnybrook, she came straight to the grocery store to help me collect food for that weekend!” After that, Anne audited the training program both to help the facilitators refine their agendas and to help her qualify for her Project Manager Professional Certification (PMP), which she was working on despite her diagnosis.
Bringing awareness to the lack of hospice care in Canada became a priority for Anne. She met with the director of the Palliative Care File for the Ontario Government at the time, intent on bringing to light the need for improved hospice care. Anne was convinced that HHA’s contributions would be welcomed by anyone looking to make improvements to healthcare in Ontario, so she was incredibly deflated after realizing the chasm that existed between politics and care for the dying, having been told that hospice care is not a political priority.
Still, Anne’s passion for the cause and determination continued. In 2017, during her yearly wine tour with her sister in Niagara, Anne hopped on a GO train to meet up with a group from HHA having drinks and talking strategy in Toronto. Tracey remember this time fondly, recalling how “we picked her up at the station, had drinks and talked, and then drove her right back to the GO station so she could get back to her sister and continue their wine tour.” This memory comes with laughter as Tracey also remembers how much fun they had that night.
Anne’s sense of humour was one of her dominant traits. Tracey gives the example of Anne’s belief that it made perfect sense for the LCBO and Tilly Hats to sponsor HHA - because, after all, cancer patients need hats for when chemo makes them loose their hair, and many people who are facing death have a particular appreciation for alcohol!
In 2017, Anne helped plan the first ever Moonlit Memory Walk. Anne reached out to businesses to donate, enlisted people to walk, and gathered food donations. When the public response to the Walk wasn’t what the team had hoped for, Tracey was on the verge of giving up. But Anne would have none of it! - “No,” she insisted, “we go on and hold this Walk, no matter what.”
The First Annual Moonlit Memory Walk took place under the October full moon just as planned. Anne, weakened by cancer and treatment, managed to get to our venue, the Toronto Humber Yacht Club, and stayed long enough to see people gather in honour of the loved ones they were walking for, with lanterns labeled with the names of those people. Thanks in no small part to Anne, the Moonlit Memory Walk got off the ground and has been growing ever since its humble beginnings.
On October 21, 2018, three days before the Second Annual Moonlit Memory Walk, Anne lost her incredibly hard-fought battle with cancer. We received the blessing of her children to name Anne “Honourary Chair” of the Moonlit Memory Walk. We thank Melanie Anderson for sharing her stories and memories about Anne, and also Kyle and Anneliese for their on-going support of the mission that their mother held so dear to her heart.
We honour Anne through this fundraiser and through our determination to improve the state of hospice care in our communities. When people would rather not talk about death (nevermind fund it!), we need to remind them that dying is an inevitable part of living and is the one true thing that connects us all.
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