鈥淪he wasn鈥檛 a 鈥榣egacy鈥� kind of person,鈥� said Elle Flanders of her mother, the late educator, advocate, mentor and philanthropist , CM, LLD, who founded North America鈥檚 first chair in palliative medicine at 成人VR视频 in 1994. 鈥淟ooking back wasn鈥檛 her thing. She was all about right now, about the work that needed to be done.鈥�
Along with her sister, the writer and historian Judith Flanders, filmmaker and artist Elle Flanders was talking via Zoom in the lead-up to last October鈥檚 keenly anticipated , the inaugural instalment of a planned annual series whose proceeds will go to the Council on Palliative Care. (The very council that was founded, and for many years co-chaired, by Kappy Flanders. The word legacy is a bit hard to avoid here.)聽聽
鈥淲hen Kappy died in 2020, there was still some confusion about palliative care,鈥� said Elle, recalling some of the initial thinking around the need for something like the Lectures. 鈥淔or everything she had done, there were still questions. How does one get it? When does it kick in? Who does one call? Despite being in the lead with a lot of this, she was probably as unsure about those points of follow-through as anybody else.鈥澛�
The subheading of last year鈥檚 Lecture refers to its guest participants, crime novelists Donna Leon and Louise Penny. To match the evening鈥檚 underlying purpose with a literary genre not unfamiliar with death and dying, was an inspired idea; to score two of the most acclaimed and popular writers in that genre鈥攚riters who can draw a crowd by word of mouth alone鈥攚as a coup.聽聽
鈥淜appy was intent on being public facing,鈥� said Elle. 鈥淪he didn鈥檛 want things like, say, the med-school experience to be too much their own language, too separate. The idea of this lecture series is not only to carry that public-facing principle forward, but to make it fun. In this case it鈥檚 a way of engaging an audience that, frankly, is coming to hear Donna and Louise and Judith, all of whom are mavens in this whole other realm of literature. Talking about death and dying, too often, means preaching to the choir. Well, this way we can say, 鈥楪uess what? You鈥檙e going to meet your favourite authors, and we鈥檙e going to talk about their work together with the idea of death and dying.鈥欌��
Judith Flanders, who writes social history books as well as murder mysteries, moderated the inaugural event. Ahead of time, she gave an indication of the spirit that鈥檚 driving The Kappy Lectures when she commented on her book, . 鈥淭he Victorians saw death all the time, and we almost never do,鈥� she said. 鈥淓lle and I are extremely unusual in that both our parents died at home, and we were with them as they were dying. As a society, we鈥檝e taken death and sanitized it. We鈥檝e pushed it into either a clinical setting in the hospital, or into the entertainment section. We see people die on television and in the movies and in crime fiction all the time; the Victorians had a much closer and more brutal relationship with death.鈥澛�
An increasing awareness of palliative care notwithstanding, many Montrealers, and even some 成人VR视频ians, may not necessarily know of the field鈥檚 deep local roots. The very term 鈥減alliative care鈥� was coined by Dr. Balfour Mount, who established the palliative care unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1975. It was the first hospital-based unit of its kind in North America and played a crucial role in legitimizing the discipline as a field of study. Dr. Justin Sanders is the third person to have occupied the Kappy and Eric M. Flanders Chair, having been named to the position in 2021. He has said it was 鈥渢he honour of a lifetime鈥� to hold this role, so it wasn鈥檛 surprising to learn that he鈥檇 brought a thorough knowledge of 成人VR视频鈥檚 palliative tradition to the job, and that he concurs with the Flanders sisters on the value of a lecture series that brings the discussion up to the moment and takes it into the future.
鈥淲ith an event like the Kappy Lectures,鈥� Sanders said, 鈥湷扇薞R视频 is reasserting its role as a contributor to the future of palliative care, not just its past. It鈥檚 also increasing our exposure to the public and their awareness of our role in the care of people affected by serious illness. I would say that if people who have a serious illness don鈥檛 have access to palliative care, the evidence suggests that they really don鈥檛 have access to the best care.鈥澛�
At the launch event in a packed R. Howard Palmer Amphitheatre, Donna Leon spoke by Zoom with Judith Flanders about researching hospice care for her 2020 novel, , comparing her experience in Italy and the United States, where it felt more like a business; she also deconstructed the thought process behind her decisions on whether to kill off a character, drawing laughs from the crowd with her droll delivery. Louise Penny, interviewed onstage by Judith Flanders, talked about聽her newly published novel, ,聽and taking inspiration for another one of her books from a 2014 newspaper article about an episode in Canadian history that has faded all too quickly from public memory: the moment on Parliament Hill in Ottawa when a compassionate passerby whispered 鈥淵ou are loved鈥� into the ear of dying Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, who had just been shot. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the very essence of palliative care, right there,鈥� Penny said.聽
It鈥檚 a measure of their commitment to The Kappy Lectures that Elle and Judith (who are keen to credit their sister Susan with additional behind-the-scenes help) are already talking about the series in the long term: plotting wish lists for future guests, mentioning that French-language events are a possibility, conceptualizing different angles into their multi-faceted theme. The potential is enticing and wide-ranging.聽
鈥淲e鈥檙e doing this so that we can enter into a discussion that can continue over the years and open it up to a wide public that is not technically connected to palliative care,鈥� said Judith. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a chance for a two-way conversation with everybody about something that is, after all, a one hundred-percent certainty for everybody.鈥澛�
鈥淢y aspiration is nothing less than having something at 成人VR视频 that is as significant as the Massey Lectures,鈥� Elle said. 鈥淣ot because I鈥檓 grand and think I need to do something important, but because I think the topic is deserving of it. I think we need more conversations that are not sequestered within their relative fields. I want to bring the public back to the university.鈥澛�
鈥淎nd the university back to the public,鈥� said her sister.聽聽
Kappy Flanders, you get the feeling, would approve.