By Michael Downing
with Reilly Fitzgerald
“I remember taking a trip as a young adult, in the late 1980s, to the Health Sciences Centre in St. John’s,” Reilly told me one morning in an email. The HSC is the main medical facility in the province and where Memorial University of Newfoundland’s faculty of medicine is located. Reilly went there for a photo shoot of his hand and arm and was told the photos would be used in a medical publication.
“I could easily be bitter about the medical journey that significantly intruded on my childhood and actually aggravated my condition,” he said, “but that is not how I approach life. I would not be the person I am, had I not experienced the things I did as a part of those surgeries. I got to see and experience a lot during my almost annual summer visits to the Janeway Health Centre.”
At Janeway, Reilly learned that many children were going through even more challenging situations, so he learned learned to face difficult experiences, such as surgery and being isolated from family, with a positive attitude. “I got to meet people who were similar to myself in that they, even for a short time, were learning to live with physically challenging situations,” he said.
One of the key aspects of his visits to Janeway—and later the Health Science Centre—was encountering original art. He recalls that the very first painted portrait he ever saw was the portrait of Dr. Charles A. Janeway as he entered the children’s hospital.
“Each floor was decorated with murals of colourful cartoons and scenery,” he said. Reilly remembers rubbing the fingertips of his left hand along the walls containing those murals as he strolled up and down the ward with his right hand in a cast, tied to an IV pole on wheels. “I later remember seeing original paintings by Newfoundland and Labrador artists hung on the walls of the Health Science Centre,” he said. “These encounters with art added to my interest in the discipline and the art I created during my hospital stays helped me develop my skills, even as a child.”
To compensate for limitations with his right hand, Reilly began to sketch with his left, after an “uncharacteristic mid-winter surgery in January of 1978.” He would have been in 5th grade.
The adults in his life came to the conclusion that it would be better if he switched from his naturally dominant right hand for writing to his much more dexterous and pain-free left hand.
“I have a theory that this switch to my left hand at an important developmental point in my life, which ultimately made me ambidextrous, may have also helped my brain develop new connections and enhance my artistic abilities,” he said. “Who knows? All I know is, the switch was relatively easy, and my development as an artist, which had already been noted by my peers and teachers, did not seem to be affected at all. Everything seemed to steer me toward creating art.” In closing, I can’t help but think of a expression my wife and I share: “With the Universe, there is always a way.” No better example of this exists than the attitude and determination of my friend, Reilly Fitzgerald.
My Writing Wanderland 
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