Margaret Anne Shuham: "Making a Difference"

As some of you know, my name is Margaret Dore and I am Margaret Shuham’s niece. We are both pictured in the photo, together. She was my mother’s [Mary Dore’s] sister. I would like to share some of my remembrances of Margie, as well as what I think is a point of her life for all of us.

My friend Lisa [Walterskirchen] asked me about my first memory of Margie, and I don’t think I have one. It was more like she [Margie] was always there. She was this calm woman with well coiffed hair, who would do fun things with us, i.e., me, my brothers and sisters.

Sometimes she would take us to play on the swings at Madison Park [in Seattle]; other times we would feed the ducks or just take a “spin” in her car. Margie would give us joy with the small things.

Margie was always so calm, I thought that she was my mother’s younger sister. She was actually 13 years older.

Over the next 30 years or so, Margie was always there. Then in maybe 1999, when she was 83, we started walking Greenlake.  2.8 miles just to get around the lake, plus walking to and from my car to get to the lake.

Interview With State Senator Mike Padden on TVW, Thursday 10/04/24 at 7 pm

Senator Padden:

As mentioned in my most recent e-newsletter, I sat down for a “farewell interview” with Austin Jenkins, the host of TVW’s "Inside Olympia" show. 

The interview focused on my 28-year career in the Legislature and some of the key issues I focused on during my years in the House and Senate. The interview will be shown for the first time on TVW this Thursday (October 3) at 7 p.m. 

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For a short summary of Senator Padden 's life and career, please see below.

My Personal Experience With Assisted Suicide

By Margaret Dore

In another life, most likely in 1980 when I was 23 years old, I talked three young men down from suicide.

What I think happened is that a final exit network type person had given them my phone number by mistake. This was before the age of caller ID.

I was contacted by each of the three young men over a period of time, each one wanting assistance to kill himself. 

I called a suicide prevention person to ask what I should do, i.e., with regard to the first one. The person told me to ask the suicidal person why? To engage him.  

My Mum Didn't Die

Good morning. I’m Anita Cameron, Director of Minority Outreach for Not Dead Yet, a national, grassroots disability organization opposed to medical discrimination, healthcare rationing, euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Assisted suicide laws are dangerous because though these laws are supposed to be for people with six months or less to live, doctors are often wrong about a terminal diagnosis. In 2009, while living in Washington state, my mother was determined to be at the end stage of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. I was told her death was imminent, that if I wanted to see her alive, I should get there in two days. She rallied, but was still quite ill, so she was placed in hospice. Her doctor said that her body had begun the process of dying.

Though she survived 6 months of hospice, her doctor convinced her that her body was still in the process of dying, and she moved home to Colorado to die.

My mum didn’t die. In fact, six weeks after returning to Colorado, she and I were arrested together in Washington, DC, fighting for disability justice. She became active in her community and lived almost 12 years!