Overview

Keiko Honda is living a successful, busy life as a scientist of cancer epidemiology at Columbia University in New York City when one morning she abruptly loses all strength in her legs. Within hours, she can barely breathe. She soon discovers she is permanently paralyzed from the chest down due to a rare autoimmune disease with a frequency of approximately one case per million per year. Seeking a wheelchair-accessible home closer to nature in which to raise her daughter, Keiko moves to Vancouver, Canada. She starts hosting informal artist salons, forms a mutually supportive group of artists and art-loving neighbours and then, surprisingly, becomes an artist herself. While her illness forced her departure from a career she spent twelve years building, it would ultimately provide the opportunity to live a life dedicated to community, friendship and art, as well as the continually evolving process of self-discovery as a mother, Japanese immigrant, survivor and artist. Accidental Blooms is a story of profound transformation that demonstrates how tragedy can teach one to see anew.

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9781773861210

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Keiko Honda is a scientist, writer, community organizer and painter. She holds a PhD in public health from New York University, but when she suddenly contracted a rare autoimmune disease that confined her to a wheelchair for life, she left her career in research. After moving to Vancouver in 2009, Keiko started hosting artist salons, for which she was awarded the City of Vancouver's Remarkable Women award in 2014, and she founded the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society. She teaches Liberal Arts at Simon Fraser University. She lives in Vancouver, BC, and enjoys watercolour painting.

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