The Gift of May 27th, 1961
It is often a good thing that we do not know in advance as children what life will challenge us with as adults. From the age of twenty I have lived with a severe mental illness. The original diagnosis was schizophrenia; this turned out to be wrong. Only 23 years later was a correct diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder applied. There have been many hospitalizations and many lost years in depression.
This may seem the setting for a sad tale indeed, but God has had other plans. I had and have great support from family, friends in community and eventually some excellent doctors. But there is a crucial way that this website about Northern Dancer and friends reflects an overwhelming abundance of blessing in my life.
I was lucky enough to be born in 1950 at the start of the Windfields Farm glory years. God gave me a passion for thoroughbreds. I started clipping the sports pages for scrapbook material at the age of ten and I still have those scrapbooks. The most important ones cover Northern Dancer's career. He made his first career start 2 days before my thirteenth birthday.
As an adult, my history was often black, but the Dancer through his offspring and then their offspring was always sending me celebratory racing results from around the world to lift me up. Indeed the saga of Windfields Farm which I try to describe on this website demonstrates to me an overflowing abundance of blessings,
God's gift to me of May 27, 1961, Northern Dancer's real birthday, remains a staggering inspiration, and a total affirmation and proof of Love beyond credit. That is why, today, May 27, 2006, there sits on the marble grave of Northern Dancer at the farm in Oshawa, a bouquet in a vase of a dozen red Kentucky Derby roses as my way to thank Northern Dancer and God for my amazing life.
It has been a full mystery to me why I have been consumed by horse racing from my earliest days, but, you know, these animals have been my lucky stars. Northern Dancer has been the biggest. Happy 45th!
