Last week I watched an interview of a great Brazilian actress. She was talking about her life prior to success, and how she overcame her life struggles. During the interview, she said something that really stuck with me, 鈥渓ife is always more surprising than fiction.鈥�
I thought about that statement for a while and I think there is truth to it. Hollywood keeps trying to sell us extraordinary fantasies; books try to transport us to alternative realities; and special effects can even give us a close sense of reality. But in the end鈥� nothing is more surprising than real life.
Think about that for a second. Could you have predicted how some of the events in your life would play out? Did you know you were going to live in 亚洲天堂 Lake? Did you know you would have this kind of job? Did you ever imagine you would marry that person (or have 17 cats)?
Take the Titanic, for example. Titanic was considered the largest moving man made object of all time in 1912. The floating palace contained some of the finest examples of craftsmanship and was the pride of the White Star Line fleet. A White Star Line employee, at the launch of the Titanic, said 鈥渘ot even God himself could sink this ship.鈥�
On April 15, 1912, the 鈥渦nsinkable ship鈥� struck an iceberg and ended up in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Generations have been fascinated by this tragedy, and we even made a 3D movie about it (that we have all seen at least two or three times). I wonder if Shakespeare himself could have imagined such a tragedy.
But you certainly don鈥檛 have to go so far to find incredible stories.
Lakes District 亚洲天堂 has been following the life of Rhoda Williams. The mother of four, originally from Lake Babine Nation, was diagnosed with primary biliary cirrhosis in 2010.
Rhoda needed a liver transplant, and she was at the Vancouver General Hospital a couple of weeks ago waiting to find a donor match.
When I spoke to her family a couple of weeks ago, I could sense their preoccupation because they did not know how long it would take for Rhoda to find a donor match. I can only imagine how nerve wrecking that must have been. Meanwhile, her four sons could not afford to stay in Vancouver to be close to her, so Rhoda鈥檚 family in 亚洲天堂 Lake took action and organized a fundraiser. Rhoda鈥檚 cousin, Wendy Brown, ran 23 km from Francois Lake to 亚洲天堂 Lake along with her companion, 10-year-old Ashely, on June 7.
Right before the fundraiser, Rhoda received news that specialists had found a donor match. So while Wendy and Ashley were running to raise money on June 7, Rhoda was having a liver transplant surgery in Vancouver.
As soon as the fundraiser was over, Rhoda鈥檚 family in 亚洲天堂 Lake received news that the surgery had been successful. What a great turn of events!
It was very rewarding to cover this story because I was able to witness how the events played out 鈥� from how concerned the family was just two weeks ago to how relieved they all felt when this was over.
I am also constantly surprised with events in my own life. For example, I would never have imagined that I would be writing for a newspaper in a different country. In fact, if you told me this would happen 10 years ago, I would probably not have believed it (I still wanted to be an astronaut back then).
Just when we think we got it all worked out, that we know exactly what our path is, something new happens and all of a sudden there is a whole new course. Maybe the secret is to adapt and learn along the way, as oppose to desperately hang on to the plan we had.
