Memorial to Sandra

Updated: August 5th, 2008 -- After a long hiatus, Sandra's ashes have once again been scattered in a number of locations. Also added information to the ashes page and made some improvements to the website template.
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Videos

My beautiful wife Sandra, 1958-2003. Picture taken Christmas day 2002. These are some snippets of video showing Sandra with my family at Christmas 2001 and Thanksgiving 2002. (Canadian Thanksgiving, a public holiday, is in October.) In the middle there's also a short, undated (but sometime in 2002 before Thanksgiving) segment where Elizabeth (our niece) talks briefly about an earlier visit Sandra and I had made. Because the purpose of the video was really to capture the kids, Sandra isn't always the centre of attention; however, she is there in all of them (some only in voice or in reference), and that's why these videos are true gems.

I think it's worth adding a little bit of perspective here with respect to timelines. In December 2001 (when the first videos were shot) Sandra was experiencing the first pains of what she was to discover, on February 7th, 2002, was a malignant tumour almost completely blocking her colon. She had just started to see her doctor about this and was undergoing the first tests to rule out more common possible causes. The videos taken at Thanksgiving were shot seven days after Sandra found out that the cancer had spread to her liver. This was a huge blow for Sandra and really the beginning of the end for her, but with the courage and strength that she displayed throughout the last year of her life (that she didn't even admit to having), she put on a brave and happy face for the kids. These videos bring back happy memories, but the toll that the chemotherapy took on Sandra shows after the gap between Christmas and Thanksgiving the following year.

For those with either the patience or a high-speed connection, I combined all of the smaller clips into a single video which is five and a half minutes long. So if you want, you don't have to download each clip individually; just download one of the full-length videos. They all have the same footage, but are of differing quality. I recommend the high-quality one, but the medium-quality one isn't too bad. (All of the shorter clips are high quality.) The low quality one is quite small (on the screen) and the video quality is quite bad, so I'd only download that one if you really don't want to get one of the bigger files.

Technical information and download instructions are at the bottom of the page, if you need them.

Full-length video
Description File Length (m:ss) Size Download (mm:ss)*
All the same footage, so you can just pick one that you would like to download and watch.
High-quality video sandra_all_high.wmv 5:35 9.4 MB 22:35
Medium-quality video sandra_all_medium.wmv 5:35 4.1 MB 9:56
Low-quality video sandra_all_low.wmv 5:35 1.2 MB 2:57

See the descriptions of each of the clips below to find out what is happening and with who in each of the scenes in the full-length video.

Individual video clips
Date Description File Length
(m:ss)		 Size Download
(m:ss)*
December 25th, 2001 Sandra and Craig interacting with Christopher, with banter in the background. Christopher is about seven-weeks-old. sandra01.wmv 0:23 686 kB 1:39
December 25th, 2001 Elizabeth opens a Christmas present (with help from Bruce), while Sandra and Colin talk in the background. Ends with Sandra and Craig with Christopher. Elizabeth is 22-months-old. sandra02.wmv 0:42 1.2 MB 2:54
December 25th, 2001 Elizabeth performs for the camera, with Sandra in the background. sandra03.wmv 0:31 903 kB 2:10
December 25th, 2001 Elizabeth plays with her new dump truck. More of Sandra, Craig and Christopher. sandra04.wmv 0:39 1.1 MB 2:42
Unknown, 2002 Bruce talks to Elizabeth about an earlier visit from Sandra and Craig. "What did you do with Sandra and Craig?" "Eat." She'd be around two-years-old here, depending on the exact date. sandra05.wmv 0:30 886 kB 2:08
Unknown, 2002 Bruce asks Elizabeth who came over to visit the other day. (Same clip as the previous one, but less of it.) sandra06.wmv 0:07 226 kB 0:32
October 14th, 2002 Christopher walking (11-months-old), Dad (mine) in the background. Sandra can be heard talking in the background with Mum (mine again), and Elizabeth also calls out to her. sandra07.wmv 0:35 1.0 MB 2:27
October 14th, 2002 More of Christopher walking, with Aunty Sandra (and Carolyn) being encouraging as always. sandra08.wmv 1:05 1.8 MB 4:27
October 14th, 2002 More of Christopher walking, with Aunty Sandra (and Carolyn) being encouraging as always. (Same clip as the previous one, but less of it.) sandra09.wmv 0:32 931 kB 2:14
October 14th, 2002 Sandra talking to Christopher while he plays with a briefcase. sandra10.wmv 0:35 1.0 MB 2:27
October 14th, 2002 Carolyn recaps Thanksgiving, mentioning Sandra and the books she brought for the kids. sandra11.wmv 0:26 766 kB 1:50
* Estimated download times are over a 56 kbps modem. Download times over high-speed connections such as ADSL and cable will obviously be much shorter, and are relatively insignificant.

Now for the technical stuff. These files are in the Windows Media Video (.wmv) file format. I've played them without any problems in Windows XP Professional, Windows ME and Windows 98, with Windows Media Player versions 7, 9 and 10; hopefully you won't have problems either. Let me know if you do and I'll try to help. To play them, you can probably just click on the appropriate linked file name; however, I'd recommend that you right-click on the link, select "Save Target As..." (Internet Explorer) or "Save Link As..." (Firefox), save the video file on your hard drive, and play it from there by simply double-clicking it. That way you'll also be able to play it any time you want without connecting to the Internet and coming back to this website to download it again.


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