We received the following message recently:
My dear friend Peggy Hewson has been given mere months to live… It is my humble desire to see her courage and perseverance in the face of so many disabilities recognized before she passes.
” This is in celebration of Peggy Hewson, an awesome human being and a true superhero in every respect. This essay is but a brief outline of her incredible life, written by her adoring husband of 32 years.
Born Margaret Spencer in Hanna, Alberta, May 7, 1953, she was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a bone disease in which the bones are thin and brittle, and for which there is no cure. She was also born blind. She was also born with Scoliosis, a curvature of the spine.
She attended Jericho Hill School for the blind, from which she graduated. While there, she was in the school band, excelling in the clarinet, at which she was so good that she got a special mention during a concert in Japan.
She attended UBC, where she studied diplomatic history for three years, and, while not completing her degree, she received excellent grades and had a reputation as a superb scholar.
After that, she worked as a braille transcriber for CNIB. While there she met John Patrick Hewson, a partially sighted albino who was six years her senior and who was working in the technical aids department. After being an ‘item” at the workplace they lived together for eighteen months before getting married in the naval garrison Anglican Church (Her father was in the coast guard) in Esquimalt on August 3, 1980.
In 1982 she got a job as an administrative assistant with the Rentalsman’s Office of the Provincial government, later transferring to the Financial Institutions Commission, where she worked for 30 years. At work, she had an excellent reputation for reliability, conscientiousness and industriousness, as well as a good natured optimism. Meanwhile her husband John had secured a position with Passport Canada in their production section.
Then, on March 27, 2012 she had two consecutive major seizures while she and John were having dinner at a downtown Vancouver restaurant. She was rushed to St. Paul’s hospital, where she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. She was given a prognosis of one year. She was later transferred to VGH and then underwent radiation treatments at the BC Cancer Agency. For the next seven months she was cared for by John at home, with the excellent assistance of Fraser Health home care.
On August 3, 2012 John and Peggy celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary.
Then, on October 19, 2012, she experienced severe back and side pains and was taken to Royal Columbian Hospital, where she was diagnosed with multiple compression fractures caused by aging. Because of her Osteogenesis Imperfecta, these were far worse than they would normally have been. While there, it was decided to transfer her to palliative care at Laurel House Hospice in Surrey. She and John both agreed to this because she could receive the best care possible for the last months of her life. She is still there, and is receiving first-rate care from all the staff.
Throughout her difficult life she has always been optimistic, hardworking and a true fighter, overcoming disabilities which would have felled strong men. She has always had confidence in the goodness of human nature. She has always been truly caring in a soft-spoken and deeply concerned way. Just one of many examples of this is that when she was in Royal Columbian Hospital with a terminal illness, she was able to save the life of another patient in her ward by alerting the nurse when she realised that the other patient was having trouble breathing.
John says that in the 33 ½ years that he has had the honour of loving her and of being loved by her, Peggy has always had the true warrior spirit This amazing lady is a true credit to Canada, to the world, and to the human spirit. She personifies what a true Christian is supposed to be and puts all of us to shame with her incredible inner strength. We could all learn so many valuable things from her.
Written by John Hewson”