Cambridge artist and teacher never let deadly illness interfere with a rich life
Robin Armstrong of Cambridge Born: Oct. 15, 1965 in Kitchener Died: March 10, 2018 of a brain tumour
CAMBRIDGE — Paul Armstrong frequently speaks about those speed bumps in life and how his wife, Robin, pretty much ignored them, no matter how large, imposing or, in her case, life-threatening.
Take her first diagnosis of a brain tumour 14 years ago following a grand mal seizure.
There were multiple scans, surgery to remove 80 per cent of the golf ball-sized mass followed by 30 rounds of radiation to shrink the remaining 20 per cent.
In their most private moments, the teacher and artist did share her fears with Paul, but she refused to give in.
“Through this time, she never slowed down,” he said.
“She couldn’t wait to get her driver’s licence back and after a year, she did get it back.”
Faced with an uncertain future, the couple made a pact to live large. Being avid travellers they decided to work their way through the alphabet visiting Caribbean locations from A to Z. They didn’t quite finish.
Paul said during their travels, he would focus on their surroundings but for Robin, it was all about the people.
And it was on a bus heading from the airport to a resort when she was chatting to other guests that she learned the resort offered scuba diving lessons.
Paul always wanted to learn to dive so he took the lessons while Robin relaxed beachside.
But after a few of these trips, he said, she tired of being a “dive widow” and joined in.
At first Robin was a bit afraid, Paul remembers.
But once she started floating in the current, her face lit up with joy as she watched brilliantly-coloured fish, graceful turtles and undulating plant life.
The sea was alive and she loved it.
There is a photo of Robin in Mexico, suspended over thousands of feet of deep blue water, her arms outstretched as she gazes upward, marvelling at a towering coral reef.
Robin could never get enough of exploring this new world and she developed an uncanny knack of being able to spot the giant eagle rays she loved long before anyone else on the dive team.
The couple would travel two or three times a year to their favourite dive location off Cozumel, Mexico. Robin, of course, was not satisfied with learning basic diving skills. Once, when Paul was away on business, she returned to Mexico with a friend and achieved her Advanced Open Water Diver licence.
None of this surprised Robin’s mother, Colleen Baldwin.
“She was very accomplished, very determined, very fun-loving and ready to take on anything,”
said Colleen. “If she liked (to do) something, she liked it a lot.” Meaning Robin never did anything in half measures.
Born in Kitchener, raised in New Dundee the oldest of three kids, Robin came from a creative family. While her brothers John and Andrew were athletic types, Robin’s interests were firmly rooted in art and books.
After completing an English degree at the University of Waterloo, Robin spent two years studying for a masters while working as a teaching assistant. But Robin shifted gears and entered the University of Toronto’s teachers college.
Her first job was with Peel District School Board, specializing in English and art. After living in that region for a few years, Robin decided to move to Kitchener, closer to family.
It was in Kitchener she met Paul. He had been a graduate of the University of Waterloo’s bio technology program but when he couldn’t find a job, Paul enrolled in a woodworking apprenticeship program. That ended after a serious hand injury.
Paul then decided to attend teachers college and landed a short-term contract as head of an Oakville high school technology department.
“She found out I was a teacher and I knew about computers,” he said, adding that Robin asked if he’d teach her a drawing program.
Perhaps it was a ruse, an excuse to see him again? It must have worked because they married in March 1996, just after Robin’s first brush with illness.
“She was diagnosed with cervical cancer,” he said. “They told us that if we were thinking about getting pregnant, we better do it soon.”
The surgery was successful and less than a year later their first child, James, was born.
But misfortune was not done with Robin yet.
During the pregnancy she developed HELLP Syndrome, a potentially-fatal condition where red blood cells break down.
“We nearly lost her,” said Paul. “Then she developed Bell’s palsy from that.”
The temporary facial paralysis eventually disappeared but Robin had already been through so much. When Robin was pregnant again a couple of years later, Paul admits, “I was petrified, I didn’t want to risk losing her.”
The second pregnancy was without complications and daughter Mairin was born.
Robin had left her teaching job in Peel to raise her children and the couple also designed and built their own Cambridge home — an airy, spacious place filled with art.
Paul, unable to find a teaching job once his contract was up in Oakville, had started his own technology company.
When their children were old enough, Robin began volunteering in their school, and eventually she was placed on the supply teacher list.
In 2004, when James and Mairin were seven and four years old, their mother had a grand mal seizure after which the first brain tumour was discovered.
Paul said she recovered well from the surgery and radiation therapy and she had 14 years of good health. Then last fall another brain tumour was diagnosed, followed by more surgery, radiation and this time chemotherapy.
As soon as she was able, Robin signed up for glass ornamentmaking classes at the Acquired Brain Injury Association in Kitchener.
“You couldn’t keep her from making art,” said Paul. One of her favourite images, particularly in silversmithing, were dragonflies.
“She’d sit in the backyard and dragonflies would land on her,” he said. “I’ve seen up to a dozen at a time.”
But the more she deteriorated physically, the less Robin was able to engage in any aspect of life, even art.
Her free spirit was finally curtailed although she battled to the end. “She was frustrated,” Paul said. “She felt betrayed by her own body.”