Jennifer is a survivor

I am always amazed at how well people respond to good treatments. Jennifer says her last treatment of chemo-therapy has left her feeling better than expected. At some point soon, in the next week or so, the med team at the Sudbury cancer centre will take another bone marrow sample and hopefully it will once again show no cancer cells and then Jenn’s leukemia will officially be in remission. After that, Jenn says she will be transferred off the cancer ward and over to the rehab wing of the hospital. Then begins the battle to learn how to walk again, hopefully. Anyway, as much as Jenn was worried about the last round of chemo-therapy, things seemed to have worked out nicely. For the first time, she had no fever when her blood counts dropped down. Also, she experienced only one day of nausea. What a change that is from her past encounters with the chemo-cocktail. It looks like my favourite girl will be at home with her boys for Christmas!
Meanwhile, back in Timmins, I am settling down to apartment life. We closed the deal on the house because the young couple that bought it wanted to get moved in before Christmas. I cannot disagree with that. My new apartment is very nice, but it is going to take me days to unpack.
Not all is well in Timmins these days. Yesterday, Xstrata, the Swiss based company that bought the Kidd Creek smelter a few years ago, announced that it will close the Timmins copper smelter and zinc refinery next May, putting 670 people out of work. It's a huge news story, but I feel terrible for the workers and their families. Who would have thought that would ever happen? Luckily Timmins is still a treasure chest of minerals. Thank goodness for all the gold and diamonds. Let's hope those industries continue to thrive.