Editor:
In 2001, I lived in Ladner and was a very young woman making my way through undergrad at UBC. My mom had been battling breast cancer when we first moved to B.C. from Manitoba and I was fairly alone and isolated in those years.
I was trying to land my first job as a journalist and volunteered at the Canadian Cancer Society to write about a local cancer drive. As a volunteer, I met a woman named Wellner Gagnier. Sometimes we would go for coffee and she would cheer me on as I tried to find my feet.
Recetly, I found an email she had written me in 2001, after I had been passed over for a job. She told me not to get discouraged and that like all professional writers “one must adapt to rejections, sometimes many times over before acceptance.”
Now many miles away in Toronto with two decades of work behind me, I understand how lucky I was to have her in my corner.
While I no longer have her current email address, I see she still writes letters to the editor to the Optimist.
Wellner, if you’re reading this, please know you made a difference and your kind words still resonate with me all these 20-plus years later. Thank you for caring.
Jennifer Lee
