SHINE A LIGHT

Re Facing The Sun (Opinion, July 30): Some people have the rare gift of taking difficult experiences and weaving them into beautiful, haunting prose. Novelist Claire Cameron does just that. In addition to sharing her personal odyssey, she brings ice caves to life and acknowledges the wild nature in all things, including her cancer cells.

Ms. Cameron speaks of her talented English professor father who succumbed to the same melanoma. I couldn’t help but marvel at her fortitude and how her every word proves her father’s legacy is strong.

She speaks of Old English kennings as being compound descriptions that replace a noun. I can only offer “treasure-giver” to describe the generous character of Ms. Cameron in sharing this part of her life.

Wendy Morton Ottawa

The subject of Claire Cameron’s lyrical essay caught my attention as someone who had cancer and lost a dear friend to melanoma. When I reached the sentence explaining that her father was a professor at the University of Toronto, I was taken back to 1976.

I took Old English as a requirement for a master’s degree in English, and I luckily signed up for Angus Cameron’s class. Professor Cameron was a gifted teacher, full of enthusiasm for his subject, encouraging to his students, deeply learned and very, very tall. Ms. Cameron made me remember his teaching and, above all, his Nova Scotia accent which, as someone new to Canada, I found quite wonderful.

I am grateful to Ms. Cameron for bringing her father’s voice and presence back to me so vividly.

Lisa Vargo

Distinguished professor emerita of English, University of Saskatchewan; Saskatoon

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