Lasting Letters: An Evening with Frish Brandt & Dr. Samir Sinha

Overview
“Letter midwife” Frish Brandt joins geriatrician Dr. Samir Sinha for a conversation presented in conjunction with Richard Avedon Immortal.

Location:

IMA-307
Enter via The Image Centre
33 Gould Street, Toronto

Frish Brandt was Richard Avedon’s longtime dealer at San Francisco’s Fraenkel Gallery before becoming a “letter midwife.” She joins Dr. Samir Sinha, one of Canada’s foremost geriatricians and a leading expert on societal aging for a conversation presented in conjunction with the exhibition Richard Avedon Immortal. Brandt will share stories from her years working with Avedon, as well as insights from her current practice helping people write important letters to the people they care about most. As she puts it, “A letter, like a photograph, is a contemporaneous note, a time machine, with the power to articulate something now for the future.” Drawing on her new book, Unfinished Business: The Five Essential Letters to Write in Your Lifetime, Brandt will explore the what, why and how of writing these letters, while Sinha will offer his perspective on end-of-life care and what he calls the “art of negotiating the surrender.” Together, Brandt and Sinha will consider how we communicate, reflect and prepare for the later stages of life, and the importance of addressing the things that are often left unsaid. A book signing will follow.

Attendees are welcome to view the exhibition Richard Avedon: Immortal from 6–7 pm before the talk and again following the talk until 9 pm.

Above: photos courtesy of Frish Brandt and Dr. Samir Sinha.

About the Speakers
Frish Brandt is an author and Letter Midwife. She is the former President and Partner of Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, where she spent forty years immersed in photography, art and the conversations they inspire about love, loss, beauty, and meaning. Her longstanding interest in these questions eventually led her to palliative care.

In 2009, Brandt discovered a new calling: helping people write letters of love, gratitude, forgiveness, and legacy. She began volunteering as a Letter Midwife through Zen Hospice Project and later By the Bay Healthand Stanford Hospital working with people facing the end of life and those wishing to leave lasting messages for the people they love.

Brandt now teaches the practice of essential letter writing at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and to individuals and institutions across the country, including museums, universities, hospitals, and caregiving associations. Her book, Unfinished Business: Writing the 5 Essential Letters of Your Life, was published by Penguin Random House in October 2026.

Dr. Samir Sinha is a Geriatrician and Clinician Scientist at Sinai Health System and the University Health Network in Toronto, a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, the Director of Health Policy Research at Toronto Metropolitan University’s National Institute on Ageing, as well as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Medicine.

A Rhodes Scholar, Sinha is a highly regarded clinician and international expert in the care of older adults. In 2014, Maclean’s proclaimed him to be one of Canada’s 50 most influential people and its most compelling voice for the elderly. As a former member of the Government of Canada’s National Seniors Council and a current member of its Ministerial Advisory Board on Dementia he helped to develop and now oversee Canada’s National Dementia Strategy and recently led the successful development of Canada’s new National Long-Term Care Services Standard.

Internationally, he serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the International Centre for Future Health Systems at the University of New South Wales. Furthermore, as a longstanding member of the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council and a more recently appointed member of the Board of Trustees for HelpAge International, he remains committed to supporting the implementation and administration of unique, integrated and innovative models of geriatric care and support that reduce disease burden, improve access and capacity and ultimately promote health.