Grand River Hospital - Cancer Centre - Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Fighting Cancer's Isolation

In 2017, I received the devastating news. My teenage son had been diagnosed with cancer, a diagnosis that no parent should ever have to hear. Living with cancer can be isolating and painful, with no escape from the darkness of suffering. I remember waking up one morning in tears, feeling overwhelmed by the challenges we were facing and the helplessness I felt watching my child struggle. I couldn't imagine others going through the same pain. In that moment, it all came to me. I approached the staff at the Cancer Center of Grand River Hospital and offered to display my non-commissioned art pieces in their waiting rooms. They were moved by the message of hope in my artwork. So I began painting flowers - innocent and beautiful, causing no harm or hurt. After leaving my job, I rushed to the hospital to see my son, then headed home to continue painting. I couldn't stop until all of my flowers were completed, a process that took nearly two years to finish. My hope is that if anyone you love ever hears the word "cancer," they will look up at these flowers and feel a glimmer of hope. Like tiny seeds blooming into vibrant flowers, my paintings are meant to provide a brief respite from pain for those who see them. Each stroke on each canvas was created with this intention in mind.

Posted: May 10, 2021

It all started with colors.

In 2017, EvaNali sat in one of the waiting areas in Grand River Hospital’s Cancer Centre, staring at the blank wall in front of her, wishing for a distraction. She was living a parent’s greatest fear: Waiting to learn if her child had cancer. In the moments before she was called into the exam room to speak with a physician, she felt as grey as the walls around her. When she met with the physician, her worst fears were confirmed. “It was the hardest moment of my life,” EvaNali recalls. In the days that followed, EvaNali kept coming back to how she felt looking up at those blank waiting room walls. EvaNali, pictured abo, has created and donated 29 paintings of flowers to GRH's Cancer Centre, which she refers to as "29 visions of hope"
“Living with cancer could be isolating, deeply hurting, with no escape, trapped in the dark of pain," EvaNali recalls. "I remember waking up one morning, in tears, thinking, how challenging things are, and how hard it is to watch my son struggling. I was not able to help him. More so, I could not imagine others facing the same pain; I just couldn't. Deeply hurt and confused, all of a sudden, it just came to me.” For EvaNali, flowers are a symbol of beauty and hope combined with her passion for painting. She decided to create 29 visions of hope on canvas, each a different flower to hang in different spaces throughout the Cancer Centre.

EvaNali reached out to Donna Van Allen, director of Waterloo Wellington’s Regional Cancer program and GRH’s cancer program, to see if she would be in support. EvaNali met with Donna and described her experience and identified that she would like to donate some of her art to support patients, families and staff. “EvaNali described her experience and asked if this was something she could do to support patients, families and staff,” says Donna. “She is incredibly talented, so we jumped at the opportunity of such a generous gesture. The people we serve often see the hospital environment through different lenses and experiences than we do. We feel privileged to understand their perspectives and work with patients and families to improve the care we provide in any way possible.” For nearly 2 years, EvaNali spent nearly every spare moment of her time painting the flowers. “I’d come home, turn on my music and just paint,” EvaNali recalls. “These paintings became my purpose.”

The collage of paintings to be the focus of the unveiling is on the wall in the main waiting room on the third floor by the front entrance of the
Cancer Centre. It is high up on the wall (the ceiling is the height of the floor above as there is a balcony walkway on the 4th floor of the Cancer Centre on the way to the chemo suite in which the art will also be visible). There is a sheet covering the art that has been rigged with a drawstring to be able to pull and reveal the art during the unveiling. There are other pieces throughout the Cancer Centre exam rooms on the third and fourth floor that have been installed however they have not been covered for the unveiling.
The original canvas are for sale.
Click below to watch the virtual unveiling in Grand River Hospital's Cancer Centre.

Click here to watch the YouTube Video
And I just hope if anyone gets to hear this dreaded word, "Cancer", just maybe, somehow, would be able to look up at those flowers, and "Feel" the hope the Flowers were born from. As tiny seeds, blooming to beautiful flowers, my hope is to bring a brief separation from the pain. For each stroke on each canvas was meant to be.

Grand River Hospital 29 Flowers - Cancer Centre, Kitchener, Ontario