Dr. Brian Ostrow Wins Award

Twenty-two years ago a wonderfully eccentric customer, Brian Ostrow, asked Barb Minett to see Woman in the Dunes, directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, upstairs in The Bookshelf cinema. The next day there was a bike ride, and born from that has been twenty-two years of highly entertaining companionship. How lucky we are that this character joined our family, fully engaged and open about his "Brian-ness." He is the gentleman mowing his lawn in a lungi--a passionate opera goer, excellent reader and critic, and outdoor enthusiast. I have sung Leonard Cohen with him in the Himalayas, fought with him over cards in France, and watched him make impossible structures of whimsy out of mini marshmallows with his grandchildren. Call on him to recite any song or poem (seriously) and he can with gusto. Speaking of gusto, he is my fellow Neruda enthusiast about food. Last Friday I called him and he was preoccupied and muttering about how to make pomegranate molasses for a special dinner that night.

The reason for the fancy dinner, and for this blog post, is that Dr.Ostrow has just been given the 2013 Journal of Wound Care Award for Best Research From a Developing Country. Brian has been leading a research team that, by working with local health care professionals, has reduced by more than fifty per cent the number of leg amputations due to diabetes in Guyana, South America. Mazel Tov to The Bookshelf's madame's guy. We are so proud of you and your team. May you continue to change the world around you, even when few are aware of your tremendous work.

- Hannah

While Brian couldn't attend the award ceremony in London, England in person, he did send along a brief acceptance speech via video, which we'll also offer here.

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