Rachna Gilmore’s never-ending story
Author with rare autoimmune disease continues to write by dictating to friends
At the age of 64, acclaimed children’s book author Rachna Gilmore had to learn to write again.
“First as a drunken ant, then a drunken spider and now as a human child, so at least I’m now the same species,” she jokes. “If I didn’t laugh, I wouldn’t get out of bed at all.”
Gilmore has paraneoplastic syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease, which makes it difficult for her to type and to read large quantities of text.
“It gives me jumpy vision,” said Gilmour, who is also in a wheelchair and, because of balance issues, unable to walk.
She has had the condition for a year and a half, when it surfaced after surgery for uterine cancer. She left her house to have surgery and never went back to her Orléans home, instead living in respite care and retirement homes.
Her goal is to get better and buy a place on her own. Meanwhile, she lives at Villagia in the Glebe retirement residence, and is working on a young adult dystopian novel called Air.
To do that, she dictates to her friends, and they input the text for her. “I’m two-thirds through the first draft of Air. It will take many drafts.” She hopes to be better by the rewriting process, “but it’s all very uncertain.”
The Ottawa author has written 23 children’s books, ranging from picture books to novels for all ages, as well as a collection of adult short fiction published under her pseudonym, Rachna Mara.
“When you’re writing, with the typing it flows a certain way. When you recite it instead, you can’t twiddle twaddle on. In a way, it forces you to be more concise. It’s all good. And thank goodness for friends who type it out for me.”
Born in India in 1953, Gilmore came to Canada after attending university in England. She has won multiple honours and awards including the Governor General’s Award for English-language children’s literature.
She moved to Villagia in the Glebe in mid-December after spending a year at another retirement home where she was dissatisfied. She likes the new location because it’s near her daughter, son-inlaw and grandchildren, aged four and two. Another daughter lives in Toronto.
There are regular phone calls from England, from friends and from her mother, 87, who resides in the Midlands, outside Wolverhampton.
Gilmore’s husband died in 2012. “I don’t like the word ‘widow,’ ” she says. “I’m married, my husband passed on.”
It has been a rough number of years since, getting back on her feet after his death and then having her illness to cope with. “You have to find something to be grateful for every day, even if it’s just the comfort of my bed and chocolates, an essential part of my diet every day.” Her friends help out with shopping for her, including chocolate. Not Valentine’s chocolate, though. “Valentine’s Day was my husband’s birthday so I have to just get through it.”
Settling in to her new home and getting her furniture out of storage, Gilmore sings in the Villagia choir, knits and listens to audio books. She has physiotherapy every afternoon. “It’s important to keep my energy up so I don’t slide backwards. I’m hoping I’ll get better. I continue to have hope.”
Despite her illness, she can’t imagine not writing, and continues to “plark” — play, work and have a bit of a lark.