The owners of a popular bakery in Ottawa’s east end say they’re grateful for the support they’ve been given by the community after they received news that two of their children have a rare disorder.
Myroslava Mykytyn and Isaac Fouchard opened the Black Walnut Bakery in Cumberland in 2015, much to the delight of locals, recalls Fouchard.
“I’d be out walking our dog and they’d be like, ‘Oh, you guys are the ones who are gonna open the bakery!” he said. “Right from the get-go the community was so excited about us being here, so the support was almost instant.”
Longtime Cumberland resident and co-chair of the Cumberland Community Association Yuri Locmelis is a frequent visitor to the bakery on Cameron Street near Highway 174.
“It’s a gathering spot and a place where everybody feels welcome,” said Locmelis. “You’re probably going to meet somebody in the neighborhood.”
Family hit by double SLS diagnosis
Mykytyn and Fouchard’s plans took a twist in 2019 with news that their then two-and-a-half-year-old son Caleb has a rare genetic disease called Sjögren-Larsson syndrome (SLS).
“We started to kind of notice developmental delays when he was around eight to nine months,” said Mykytyn. “It wasn’t until mid-2019 that we got the genetic testing back.”
The disease can cause physical and intellectual disabilities, as well as extremely dry skin, as it has in Caleb’s case.
SLS is genetic, meaning the family also faced the risk of the