Timeline – Melanie Aliwalas Memorial Site

Welcome baby Melanie

February 16, 1974

Welcome to baby Melanie born in Edmonton, Alberta February 16, 1974 [easy-image-collage id=104]

Melanie and Arnel 1st date

April 2, 1991

I rented a limousine and picked up Melanie to go to a restaurant. After dinner we drove around and then dropped her off at her house. I think I impressed her enough for her to consider a second date 🙂

University of Alberta – Dental Hygiene

April 28, 1995

Dental Hygiene Graduation

Wedding Day

September 27, 1997

Arnel and Melanie married in Edmonton, Alberta at Annunciation Parish. Saturday September 27, 1997 Officated by: Father Robert Haggerty and Reverend Dr. Gordon Oaks [modula id=”342″]

Sister camping trip

June 20, 1999

The sisters had an unintentionally adventurous camp trip. Between forgetting Sharla’s sleeping bag, trying and failing to cook on the ‘stove’ they brought (which turned out to be Dad’s catalytic tent heater), losing Sharla in a corn maze in +30C on her crutches, and forgetting a bunch of other camping essentials: ketchup for hotdogs, flipper for pancakes, etc…..despite it all we had a fun and very memorable trip. I remember laughing a lot.

Bought our first house in Edmonton

January 1, 2001

We decided to purchase a new home from a builder and watched as they built the house.

Ethan was born

January 1, 2003

[easy-image-collage id=306] Ethan was born in Edmonton, AB

Kaitlyn was born

January 1, 2006

[easy-image-collage id=252] Kaitlyn was born in Edmonton, AB

Moved to Calgary

March 1, 2007

Moved to Calgary for Arnel to take a new job at STARS Air Ambulance.

Lily was born

January 1, 2008

Lily was born 5 weeks prematurely in Calgary, AB and had to undergo surgery at 4 days old.

1st Brain Surgery

April 23, 2010

Melanie was called in by the Neuro-oncologist to recommend brain surgery to resect her tumour and to get a pathology report to identify the type of cancer. The results came back that in her right front parietal area of her brain she was diagnosed with a grade 3 anaplastic oligoastrocytoma. After surgery she was included in the CANTON/CEC.1 clinical trial that compares radiation therapy to radiation and chemotherapy. She received adjuvant radiation therapy with monthly cycles of Temozolomide chemotherapy.

Early Childhood Education Certificate

December 16, 2011

Melanie had completed all of her treatments and was feeling better enough to go back to school to work in schools as a teacher’s assistant by obtaining her Certificate for Childcare workers – Calgary, Alberta. She ended up working at the school and even worked in Kaitlyn’s classroom with Mrs. Whitehead at Monsignor Neville Anderson.

Moved to Langley, BC

October 1, 2013

Moved to the West Coast for greener winters, ocean, mountains.

Sister trip to Cancun Mexico

May 6, 2014

Melanie, Sharla and Kim went on their inaugural international sister trip. Although it was forecast to rain they enjoyed many sunny days relaxing pool side and on the beach. It was a great time and a wonderful catch up.

Stenberg College – Special Education Assistant

December 18, 2015

Special Education Assistant certificate. Melanie was feeling strong enough to be able to return to school and look for full-time work as a Special education assistant. She worked as a substitute for a year before accepting a position at Langley Fundamental middle/high School.

2nd Brain surgery

December 22, 2018

We were in the middle of moving from one house to a new place and Melanie mentioned that she was starting to lose feeling in the left side of her body. She called an ambulance and they took her to the hospital for CT scans. After the scan they contacted the neurosurgeon on call and he recommended emergency brain surgery for the following morning. Melanie went in for surgery and they removed as much of the new growth as possible. She had an amazing recovery but the bad news of her new diagnosis was that the tumour had returned as a more aggressive grade 4 Glioblastoma.

Mother’s Day dinner

May 10, 2020

[easy-image-collage id=336] This photo was taken at Bob and Miriam’s house after our family dinner celebrating Mother’s Day. Melanie was having headaches and back pain but since we had our regularly scheduled MRI for next Wednesday she was trying to tough it out until then. The next day we called an ambulance…

Langley Hospice

May 22, 2020

The day after Mother’s day Melanie was having extreme back pain and I called an ambulance to take her to the hospital to get a CT scan to see what was going on. She had her first seizure and had multiple seizures during her time in emergency. The CT scan showed that her tumour was bleeding into her brain and in her spinal cord, causing the back pain. Melanie received 3 different type of chemo over the span of the 16 months since her 2nd surgery but none of the drugs seemed to be reducing or slowing the growth of the new tumour. Radiation would be more detrimental than helpful and she wasn’t able to have surgery as the last chemo drug had caused her blood to anti-coagulate. She was admitted to Langley hospital May 11, 2020 and was moved to the Langley Hospice on May 19. Mel passed away peacefully at 1:40pm on May 22,…