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Stories of Lake George: How Lake George brought healing during chemo

Posted: 4/12/2019

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Stories of Lake George: How Lake George brought healing during chemo

When Linda Ouellette was going through chemotherapy in 2014, she found herself transported via her own photographs to a happier place — Lake George.

By editing photos of her vacations to our area, she was able to distract her mind from what her body was fighting.

She's a survivor of both Stage 2B breast cancer and chronic pain, so she is very familiar with the therapeutic benefits of lake life.

Her family has found refuge on the shores of Lake George since the 1960s when her parents accidentally discovered the area on their way to Nova Scotia for their honeymoon. (The photo above shows Linda and her mother during a stop at the Chamber in summer of 2018.)

We were honored to have Linda, who lives in Connecticut, share her inspiring story with us as part of our Stories of Lake George series.

This year in our Travel Guide, which you can read online, we launched a "Story Board" featuring two stories to kick off our Stories of Lake George feature. The other story is by Author Suzanne Sammon LaVoie. We print 70,000 copies of our Travel Guide annually and distribute it to a variety of locations and at Travel Shows as well as direct to consumers through requested mailings. It provides useful information like a lodging grid to help you decide where to stay based on amenities, location and other factors.

If you’d like to be featured on our “Story Board” and on our blog, please click here to submit your story!

Here's a look through Linda's lens:

"My connection to the Lake George region comes to me from my parents who found Lake George Village by accident while driving to Nova Scotia on their honeymoon in 1961.

They liked what they saw so much they returned, celebrating their anniversary and family vacations in the Adirondacks, nearly every year for almost five decades. Though I’ve lived in Connecticut my entire life, I grew up going to Storytown USA, Magic Forest, Time Town, and Gaslight Village.

I miss “Gaslight” to this day: the ice shows, melodrama, and the Cavalcade of Cars. It was such a great place! I remember walking along the lake on Beach Road when I was five years old - there was no sidewalk in those days. As for lodging, we stayed at the Antlers Motel on Route 9N and Northland Motor Lodge. We enjoyed many meals next door at Howard Johnson.

Though my dad has since passed away, my mom and I continue to visit Lake George every year. It has become a place to unwind, relax, reminisce, and heal.

Being a survivor of both chronic pain and Stage 2B Breast Cancer, a visit to the lake is incredibly therapeutic. There is something “out there” that cannot be defined in words and I’ve tried to express this through my photography and digital art.

I’m interested in many subjects, but it was working with my Lake George images on my iPad that distracted me through chemotherapy in 2014. Just looking at photos of the lake and mountains calmed me down during treatment. I still use my lake photographs as a distraction to this day. The body always feels relaxed when the mind is in the Adirondacks.

See more of Linda's photography at:

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