Globe And Mail Dept: Andrea went to Toronto in 1987 and graduated with a degree in early-childhood education from Ryerson University in 1991. Owing to her cancer treatments, she was never able to have kids of her own, but she was most comfortable being around children. She took on jobs in day cares and home child care. She became a fixture volunteering at Ronald McDonald House in Toronto. She would talk to the children in an empathetic, honest yet non-pitying manner, a silent acknowledgment that she knew how they felt and how they wanted to be treated, according to Globe And Mail. Andrea could not pass up a garage sale. During visits to her home, Andrea’s six young nieces and nephews would amuse themselves with her garage-sale treasures, playing with used exercise equipment and 1980s-era board games and at 8, Andrea was diagnosed with leukemia. After a long and determined battle, it was successfully treated by a then-pioneering bone-marrow transplant in New York. She was able to return to the normal life of a teenager, spending time with friends, working at the local pet store and corner store, and laughing and fighting through family summer car trips around Canada. Andrea spent the summer of 1990 in Kirkland Lake, Ont., looking after her Ukrainian immigrant grandfather, who was in his late 80s. Here she met a long-haired guitar player from a touring rock band. Despite her grandfather’s reservations about this “hippie,” Andrea began to date Joe Mancuso. They eventually married in 1996, briefly lived in Mississauga, then settled in Georgetown, Ont. As
reported in the news.
@t bone marrow transplant, joe mancuso
16.8.10
