Rose's Cantina

Embed from Getty Images I have long believed that depression can be cured when you take away the source of the depression. Not all depression, but a lot of it. Many people, including me, could have been saved from a world of depression and heartache if we hadn't been taken out by circumstances beyond our control. Death. Unemployment. Divorce. Sexual assault. A lot has happened in my life, and not all of it has been good. But I've been lucky to have loyal friends who have always supported me, and talked me down from the ledge. None of them had a pot to piss in, but each of them had a friendly ear, a warm hug, an open door. The world is a nasty place full of people who don't have stress but are carriers. They hurt you, mock you, leave you, bankrupt you, under-employ you, sexual harass you, put you down so far it looks like up. If I were a bettin' girl, I would say all those carriers are tweeting all over the place about the importance of recognizing mental i...

Embed from Getty Images Today is Bell Let's Talk Day , the day when we can all talk about mental health. Here's what I want to talk about. I was at the Queensway Carleton Hospital yesterday to bring Jennette, my little cancer warrior, to find her 88-year-old father who was sent there because he had chest pains. We got to the hospital, and we were told he wasn't there. "Of course he's here," I said, seeing the worry in poor Jennette's face. "The home said they sent him here." I looked around and there were at least 200 souls sitting in the waiting room in various states of distress. One woman was hobbling around on her cane crying. We were escorted into the intake room where there were more than 30 people, mostly seniors, laying on gurneys. There was no sign of Jim so we waited in the hallway where we were constantly jostled so that the orderlies could add more gurneys. It was like a scene out of Code Black , the series ab...