NathaN JahN

Weekender Staff

Hannah Walker was an inspiration to

those around her recalls her mother, Shelley Saunders. That legacy has survived her passing seven months ago.

Hannah's family wants to help others avoid the pain of losing a child — a deep-ly beloved family member — to heart disease. Their response to their own loss was to release a CD to hon-our Hannah and donate all proceeds to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Hannah died of cardiomy-opathy on February 9 — the very day she was supposed to receive her new heart.

People in the area were devastated when they heard the news; most had already heard that Hannah had a heart on the way and were expecting to hear more good news as the day wore on.

Her death came just over two months after Hannah showed her first sympstoms that something was wrong.

Shelley recalls that her first thought was: "How the heck did this happen? From a kid who never had any-thing worse than chicken pox. It just doesn't make sense to me."

Her sense of loss was crippling.

“Life without Hannah is like trying to learn how

to walk again,” she said. “I don’t know how to be me without her.”

But there also a flood of happy memories. Shelley describes how Hannah ran her own aesthetics business out of her hospital room in Toronto, recalling the doc-tors and nurses who made "appointments" to come in and get their nails done.

“She made little bead necklaces for everyone … She played doctor too,” said Shelley. “She had scrubs and a stethoscope. Now that this CD is out, I can picture her up there saying, ‘Do you have a CD? No? I do.’”

The idea for the CD came from a man who never knew Hannah, but felt her pro-found touch after her death.

"It was the day after her funeral and I just couldn't think of anything but Han-nah," said her third cousin Derrick Saunders. "So I wrote a poem."

That poem — Will You Remember Me? — became a song, which Derrick wanted to get produced.

After Shelley added two more poems, the playlist

grew to three songs.Derrick turned to Jason

Dahl, a sound engineer who produces Christmas CDs for Hannah's 13-year-old cousin, Stephanie La Rochelle, who sings the lyrics for Hannah's CD.

Dahl directed them to Pebble Beach Studios who offered four hours of free re-cording time.

The CD release party was held at Hannah’s school — St. Joseph Catholic School — in Prescott, on Sept. 10.

“I just think it was a great opportunity and I’m hon-oured to do it because it’s for a great cause,” said La Rochelle. “I sang the three songs while there was a slideshow of pictures of Hannah in the background. It was special.”

Shelley says a lot of the credit has to go to Derrick — a person Hannah never knew — who came up with the idea for the CD and has dedicated his time to learn-ing about the girl he never met.

“I didn’t know Derrick existed until after my daugh-ter passed away,” she said. “Derrick did wonders; he made it his mission to find out so much about Hannah. I’ve made a new BFF (best friends forever).”

Cardiomyopathy — es-sentially a weakening of the heart muscle — affects ap-proximately one in 100,000 people. Hannah’s heart was operating at six per cent of its normal functionality, pre-venting adequate blood flow and oxygen from reaching her limbs. That made her weak and faint, which first set off the alarm bells for her family that something was wrong.

For learn more about the CD, contact cdforhannah@hotmail.com.

OttawaSouthWeekenderServing Rideau Ward, Osgoode Ward and Riverside South Priceless6th Year, No. 38, September 19, 2008

Our weekend papers reach over 169,057 homes in the National Capital Region

Inside this week: Manotick Cadets string a bridge across the West Channel of the Rideau River, Page 9.

Courtesy Photo

PLAYING DOCTOR: Hannah Walker sits in hospital with brothers Matthew and Daniel as she waited for a new heart to arrive. Hannah died in her mother's arms literally hours before she would have received a new heart. Her family has released a CD in her name, with all proceeds going to the Heart and Stroke Foundation

Singing the praises of Hannah