Friendship, Collaboration, and Healing

A Guest Post About Friendship, Collaboration & Healing

My friendship and collaboration with Anne began in late 1998/early 1999. I had recently graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Art History. Anne had been in a car crash and was unable to type due to injuries sustained to her wrists in the accident. I would work with Anne typing her articles for Sculpture Magazine (among others) as she dictated them to me and helping with her correspondence. What immediately struck me about Anne is the sense of joy and wonder she brings to everything she does. Paired with Anne’s keen intelligence, unique insights gained from a life living all over the globe, and attention to detail she was the perfect friend and mentor to me as I began my career in the arts.

Through the years, our friendship grew. I would see Anne when she was visiting New York and would visit Anne’s lovely, serene home and gardens in Gainesville when I was visiting friends and family in Florida. We both got married. I started a family. Anne and Brent brought a majestic white Standard Poodle, Amma, into their lives. Anne wrote and self-published a wonderful novel. These are just a few of the many special moments and joys in our lives that we would share and celebrate. Anne continued to include me on projects she was working on—my husband helped create the first iteration of her website and I have worked with Anne on the last two iterations. The only match for Anne’s boundless creativity and productivity is her generosity.

I recall the time just before Anne’s surprising cancer diagnosis when she was not feeling well. Lacking her usual vitality and joie de vivre, she curtailed travel plans and scaled back projects. Brent, Anne’s incredible husband, started the Caring Bridge site and kept Anne’s large group of family and friends informed as Anne underwent invasive procedures, exploratory surgeries, and difficult treatments. Brent’s posts were always informative, witty, and even funny. Brent included photos of Anne, cited studies and explained medical jargon so we could all understand what was happening from afar. Front and center in each post was beautiful, multifaceted Anne—her entire being represented and never reduced to just the illness. During this time, Anne focused on channeling her energy towards self-healing. In January 2019, she received her first good news–no new lesions. The miracles have continued from that moment to the present.

This spring, amid the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, Anne reached out to me and asked if I would be able to work with her on updating her website. She shared with me the images from her Gratitude Walks and we talked about her experiences expressing her gratitude throughout her healing journey. Her wish was to realign the content on her website to reflect her current focus of using her energy and talents to help others on their healing journeys.

It has been my absolute privilege to work with Anne on updating the website to reflect this new focus. I lost my mother in September 2019 after a brave fight against endometrial cancer. Working with Anne on this content and figuring out how to best present it on the web has been important work for me. The light and love channeled into this content have helped me to begin to heal my heart and process my grief. I hope as you explore this new content on the site Anne’s joy, wit, grace, and love shine through. I have felt it as I worked with Anne on the content and it has helped me on my healing journey.

-Meg Calvert-Cason