Together we trod the boards of life, Together we tread this stage, Together we grew and together we age–We travel together as man and wife. –H. W. Bryce
As a former blogger for a seniors-service company that took care of seniors in their own homes, Mr. Bryce has since had the experience of being a care giver in his own home. That’s what launched him as a poet and sparked the genesis of his upcoming book, “Chasing a Butterfly.” In recent years his poetry has appeared in various anthologies.The quotation above is the first verse of one of the poems in the book.
During his formative years, however, in spite of all of his experience, Mr. Bryce had practically no exposure to diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Indeed, when his home town built an “old folks home,” he was dismayed at the “abandonment” of society’s elders. It came as a shock, therefore, when his wife became inflicted with exactly that disease. He has since reconciled his earlier feeling with the experience of, and the need for, “old folks’ homes.”
Born in Saskatchewan, Mr. Bryce and has lived and worked there and in Ontario, Alberta, Italy and England. He’s been a typesetter, a reporter, a newspaper and book editor, a teacher, and even a courier. He’s had numerous feature articles and creative writings published over the years–in England and Canada.
Mr. Bryce got his start in the working world during and after high school on the community newspaper, as a typesetter/compositor and sports/sometime general reporter. He attended the University of Western Ontario, now Western University, (arts and club reporter, and writer/producer of a musical), where he got his degree in English and Journalism. From there he entered the world of big daily newspaper reporting and editing (The Globe and Mail and, later in life, The Hamilton Spectator).
Today he works out of his home in the Metro Vancouver area of British Columbia, where he visits his wife in a care home every day. He also works diligently as an advocate for those stricken with Alzheimer’s, and for the fight against Alzheimer’s.
Mr. Bryce offers this interesting fact:
During my travels abroad, my two companions and I were kidnapped and held for hours while the military police, suspecting us of being spies, questioned us about their true intentions–which were simply to travel and learn.