Stepping into swimming pool helped Halifax burn survivor end 62 years of fear
CBC News | Posted: June 18, 2023 9:00 AM | Last Updated: June 18, 2023
Deborah Ward was severely burned as a child
For most people, a visit to a pool is a familiar part of summer.
But for Nova Scotia woman Deborah Ward, getting into the Sackville Sports Stadium pool two weeks ago was a momentous step after 62 years of fear.
In 1961, Ward, then seven-years-old, was living in military housing in Dartmouth's Shannon Park.
While trying to reach some sugar to lend to a neighbour, her dress touched the stovetop and caught fire.
Ward suffered third-degree burns over 70 per cent of her body and spent a year in hospital.
She told CBC Radio's Now or Never there was no psychological support offered at the time and she was just treated and released from hospital.
Ward said when she was nine, she put on a bathing suit and went to the neighbourhood pool despite some words of caution from her mother.
As she left the changing room and walked to the pool, Ward said she heard some parents making comments to one another.
Ward said everyone got out of the pool or moved to the other side when she got in.
"With the comments that were being thrown at me, being a little girl, I started to cry and I got out of the pool and went home," she said. "I've never put another bathing suit on in 60 years."
Ward has worked with burn survivors over the years. She said it has helped her emotional healing.
Today, she is president of the Nova Scotia Burn Support Group, on the board of directors of the Canadian Burn Survivors Community, and has published her autobiography. She is also a member of international burn survivor groups.
Ward said a friend, also a burn survivor, would meet her at conferences and always bring a bathing suit for her to try on.
Once, at a Calgary conference, she put on one of the bathing suits in the room. But she wouldn't wear it to accompany her friend to the hotel pool.
Fearful of showing her skin
As she prepared to take her first dip in a pool in six decades, Ward said she deprived herself of many things over the years because she was fearful of showing her skin.
She said she has lived in the Upper Sackville area since the pool was built and watched as her children, grandchildren and foster children enjoyed it — but never went in herself.
After easing herself into the pool and finally enjoying a sensation she hadn't experienced for most of her life, Ward emerged and said her mind was racing in many directions, but she felt good.
Ward said it felt like the beginning of something she wants to continue.
"I am feeling ... I'm not sure what the expression is ... a relief," she said.
"I overcame a fear that has been inside me for 62 years that I gave it wings to fly away."
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