AMHERST - Bill Trewin has Parkinson's disease, but does not let Parkinson's have him. If you like that quote, his new book is full of many more like it.
The Cumberland County native has not let himself be slowed down since diagnosed with the disease eight years ago, and the latest evidence is Driftwood, "Nature's Sculpture", a book of quotes, sayings and poems, accompanied by various photos of driftwood scenes he has taken on the Bay of Fundy shores of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick over the past two years.
He will be in Amherst for a local book signing on Friday, Dec. 17.
Trewin said he was inspired to do the book by Dr. Shawn Jennings of Quispamsis, N.B., who detailed his own story in his book Locked In Locked Out.
"I had given one of my books of nature photography that I had done on the Parrsboro shore area, and he said, Bill, you have a book there on driftwood alone. It's nature's sculpture," recalled Trewin. "That's where it took place."
Over the next two years he began taking and collecting photos of driftwood from places such as Parrsboro, Advocate and Spencer's Island, as well as Albert County, N.B. beaches such as Cape Enrage.
As for the inspirational words in the book, he garnered them from various sources, from his parents to Ellen Degeneres, as well as a few of his own.
"I had a lot of my own and then just went to friends and said give me a bunch of ideas," he said. "Then I kind of screened them. They're not all about Parkinson's There's some there about MS, cancer... there's something for everyone."
The book is being sold as a fundraiser for Team Fox, which is part of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the world leader in funding research to find better medications and eventually a cure for Parkinson's.
He credited the support of his friends and family and people like Anne Marie Picone-Ford at Ford's Apothecary Wellness Centre and Tim Hicks and Tom Badger at Advocate Printing for helping make the project possible.
Response so far has been overwhelmingly possible. The book was released on Nov. 26, and all 260 copies sold out in four hours. Another 200 have been ordered and he expects them to move quickly as well.
"I look at a picture and see something, an you look at it and see something else," said Trewin, who was born in Amherst, raised in Parrsboro, and now lives in Moncton, N.B. after retiring from careers in law enforcement and public safety. "It's all fun."
The local book signing and sale will take place on Friday at the Amherst Centre Mall from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
