Day 4832: ‘Madeleine:' Road Trip & Switzerland Light Therapy.

"Broken Pieces": junk collage, digitized.

                 

  

Want music?

    Click: Ryan Toby, Oh Happy Day!

 

2GN2S

‘Madeleine:' Road Trip & Unique Friendship

A delightful centenarian named Madeleine lives in a senior home in Canada. Full of vim and vigor, she spends her days knitting, chatting, and keeping comfortable in her modest rooms. When she befriends Brazilian-Canadian filmmaker 

Raquel Sancinetti, 67 years her junior, a beautiful relationship develops. Sancinetti’s short film, “Madeleine,”(below) emerged from the joyful, thoughtful, and tender weekly conversations the unlikely friends had over five years, along with Sancinetti’s desire to take her older companion on a road trip to the sea. Madeleine’s age, 103 when the project began meant her physical exertions were limited, and despite many attempts to convince her, Madeleine preferred to remain at home.

Sancinetti did have one powerful tool at her disposal, though, to organize another kind of trip—via the imagination. “We frequently discussed going on a road trip, so I decided to bring her out in the only way I could: through animation,” Sancinetti wrote in an editorial to accompany the Op-Docs series by The New York Times. “This short documentary was completed when Madeleine was 107 years old, and I consider myself very fortunate to have known her.”

“Madeleine” combines stop-motion animation and live action recordings in a poignant reflection on friendship, aging, and living life to its fullest. Born thousands of miles apart, their connection illustrates how beautiful—and unexpected—relationships can develop at different times of life. Sancinetti captures her friend’s infectious good humor and self-awareness with playfulness that also doesn’t shy away from the realities of one nearing the end of their life.

“I’m me! The old lady ‘par excellence!'”

The short won several prestigious film festival prizes, including Québec Cinéma’s Prix Iris for Best Animated Short Film and the Canadian Screen Awards’ prize for Best Short Documentary, among others. See more on Vimeo.

Switzerland found light therapy repairing retina damage — blindness prevented permanently.

Researchers at the University of Basel discovered that specific wavelengths of near-infrared light stimulate retinal cell regeneration, reversing damage from macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinitis pigmentosa.

The therapy uses 670-nanometer light (invisible to humans) that penetrates the eye and energizes mitochondria in photoreceptor cells. These cells, responsible for vision, typically die off in retinal diseases. The light therapy reboots their energy production, prevents cell death, and even triggers regeneration of light-sensing proteins.

Patients undergo simple 3-minute light exposure daily using a handheld device. In trials, 68% showed measurable vision improvement within 12 weeks — reading smaller letters, seeing colors more vividly, noticing details previously invisible. One patient, legally blind from macular degeneration, regained driving vision.

This addresses diseases affecting 196 million people globally, with no current cures. The treatment has zero side effects, works at home, and costs less than $200 for the device. Swiss and EU approval finalized 2024; global availability 2025. Light literally saving sight.

Source: University of Basel Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology, 2024

 

   

... feel free to skip below, TMI!!!

We are in our 38th hour of rain here, and yes, even though it doesn't rain in California, it does and still is for the next two days. If you know me at all, you'd know that I love the rain, even being out in it, watching it, driving in it but sitting in a garage with it, maybe not quite so much. I needed to clean and sort, so that part was productive. 

What saved the garage sale part was Grandhunk's 2&3, Jake and Zack, who showed up at 6:45 am 

GH#2, Jacob, 26 & GH#3, Zack, 25.

in great spirits and helped set up and table and spread my junk out in an appealing way? There were lots of hugs that make any day better and terrific. I had stacks of 12x12" canvases in various states, 7 large 36x48" canvases, trays of hardware-ish necessities, a rotating baby blue fan, a newish floor fan, a cool rough iron magazine rack, and lots of stuff I no longer need, and you wouldn't need either. We had three different visitors, all took at least one canvas, some took three and thank goodness the Sakai family came and chose one large and  few smaller. Zack picked out7, I think, for his apartment. By 11:30 they had loaded up Zack's truck. Jake went to meet fiancé Ammuelle. Profit $00, but . Zack and I took most of the remaining stuff to OLU High School Thrift Store, then went to lunch. Survival called for a nap, a long nap.

  

 

A 14 minute video, Madelienne, here

 

  

 

Just because ...

American kestre

 

Sunday's Smiles ... 

 

 

  

  Hoping you notice the good things in your day.