Tag Archives: family

gentle…

05 Sunday Mar 2017

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it was right around this time five years ago that the police knocked on the door as I was meeting with my BS friends and advised that George had been in an accident and they would take me to the hospital…

today I spent a gentle day remembering good times…

looked through old photo albums, enjoyed a short walk in the gorgeous weather, was treated to breakfast by a friend and her adorable baby (and her husband, lol), sat and read by my beautiful flowers, shopped with my son-in-law and the younger grandkids, bought some very nice pyjamas, had burgers cooked on the barbecue and am watching some tv with the perfectly working remote!!!

spoke with one daughter by phone and texted with the other…

focussing on the happy times…

it was a good day…

sixty…

04 Saturday Mar 2017

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1825… days since my beloved left me… 261 weeks… 60 months… 

hard to believe so much time has gone by… although it also feels like it was just a moment ago…

he was my best friend, lover, staunch supporter, caregiver, sounding board, helper, chauffeur, shopper, masseuse, gardener, and…

as each anniversary of his passing has come and gone I have been through a variety of emotions… profound sadness, loneliness, and many tears…

some years it has been less difficult than others, but it never has a clear path… not more difficult at the beginning and less so as time has gone by… 

the first year my colleagues all wore purple to show their support to mark the day… sweet and supportive…

received flowers from the kids today…beautiful… the orchids are nearly identical to the ones from graduation… my mauve dress and George’s matching turtleneck were designed and made by a friend and I wore a beautiful orchid corsage on my wrist… that was a very long time ago, lol…

and of course the roses… my romantic husband brought me hundreds over the years…

a lovely treat and they brought back some special memories…

optimist…

21 Tuesday Feb 2017

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headed downtown to work this morning planning to go to aquasize at the end of the day…

instead I met up with my daughter,  grandsons and a few friends… we headed over to Portage Place to find dress pants for the oldest who was performing at the Optimists International Band Festival tonight… 

then we had supper… the kids had sandwiches from Subway and we adults went to Clay Oven…

we got to the venue just before they played their pieces and then watched their workshop with an adjudicator from Montreal who spoke in French for the whole time…

took a video of both of their songs… but didn’t take a single picture of the whole band, lol…

a wonderful treat to get the opportunity to hear the oldest one’s band…

Ziggy…

25 Sunday Dec 2016

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felt a bit sad for our friend Ziggy this morning… he looked very sad as we put him into the hot almond milk…

but sure was tasty… 

had a wonderful day filled with fun, family, special moments and lots of treats…

ended with delicious turkey and all the trimmings…

the boys did a great job of cleaning up and then we devoured a chocolate Christmas tree;-)…

photo by @peacecyndi…

wrap…

20 Tuesday Dec 2016

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excellent first day of holidays…

slept in a bit, had breakfast and watched some tv…

then I spent a lovely few hours listening to Christmas carols and wrapping presents…

the kids came over and we did a run to Costco to pick up a few final items needed for the season…

while we were gone the oldest grandson shovelled the sidewalk, driveway and backyard…

they brought over the makings for tacos for supper and we gobbled them up…

after supper a bit of work went into the fish tank and the babies were added in… we hope they make it but they’d stopped growing in the bowl…

pretty nice day…

neighbour…

20 Sunday Nov 2016

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since we’ve lived in our house, there have been four owners of the house next door…

when we moved in, the young couple were newly adoptive parents and then had another little one inside of eight months, so moved to a larger house close by…  we became friends and she cut my hair for years after they left…

then came our dear friend Ellen and her husband… they lived in the house for about 25 years and became family… looking after the girls, giving us breaks at mealtimes, babysitting on a regular basis when we went bowling, sharing meals, being a sounding board… we built a gate in the fence between our yards, lol… really missed her when they moved to a seniors complex… she died not long after that in 2009 and we spent a wonderful afternoon in the garden with friends celebrating her life…

then an older single woman moved in for about a year, followed by two young men… cousins who were both pilots… last year one got married and they recently had a baby… we didn’t connect that much with any of them…they moved out on Saturday…. 

the house is empty as it waits for the next owners to arrive…

wonder who will move in… hope we connect…

dreams…

23 Sunday Oct 2016

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yesterday we went to a play in the afternoon…

it was about a woman and her adult children and how they dealt with her diagnosis of Alzheimer’s…

I am always amazed at how they can take a few inanimate objects and make them appear to be different things throughout the play…

there were a few moments that brought back memories for me…

they talked about the loss of the husband a year previous and how difficult that and the intervening time had been…

the mother told one of her daughters that she was going to take her own life when she felt the disease was overtaking her… 

that reminded me of my own mother asking me to help her die… she was in palliative care in the end stages of esophageal cancer… nowadays there are some options if a person wants to end their life when they have a terminal illness… there wasn’t anything to help a person when my mom asked me… she also asked if she could come home to die… it was difficult to say I couldn’t help her or bring her home to die… at the time she would have been staying in my daughter’s room and I wasn’t sure my daughter would be able to move back into the room if her grandmother died there…

it was a very powerful play and certainly opened up opportunities for people to discuss these difficult situations…

slept very poorly last night… kept having strange dreams with my beloved in them and then waking up… don’t usually remember dreams… thinking the play triggered them…

we did have these cute pumpkin pie cookies my friend picked up and which were very tasty…

kettle…

15 Saturday Oct 2016

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I love my tea in the morning… there isn’t time on weekdays to make it at home, so I have tea at the office…

on weekend mornings the first thing I do is fill my kettle to make a pot… 

every time I take it out of the cupboard and fill it with water I think abut my dear friend Dobby who bought it for me after my hysterectomy in 2012… I wasn’t able to lift anything for many weeks afterward and my usual kettle was twice as heavy…

she stayed and looked after me for a week and fed me, entertained me and reorganized my freezer while she was here…

it made all the difference to my recovery as I was still struggling with pain and couldn’t even go up the stairs… she made lovely bits of food to encourage me to eat and helped me get outside to sit and enjoy the sun and fresh air…

so every time I see the kettle I think of her wonderful care…

and now I also remember fun with family… 

this summer I went camping with my kids for a few weeks and I took along the kettle… it became a lifesaver… the first site we were at didn’t have electricity so I’d go to an empty site early in the morning so I could make a thermos of tea… then I realized that if I just put the hot water in the thermos there would be water for the tea I wanted and the coffee the kids like, but needed quite a bit later, lol… it also came in handy to heat up water for dishes…

at our second location we had two sites, one with electricity and one without… we’d put the kettle on the table by the power to heat for tea, coffee, hot chocolate and dish water and would run back and forth to get it for whatever we were working on… lots of fun…

this morning I had a raspberry smoothie with my tea…

great memories…

fleeting…

11 Sunday Sep 2016

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what a lovely ending to my vacation…

enjoyed a walk to and through the Park before a breakfast date with my sister-in-law, nephew and his girlfriend…

after breakfast we took a quick tour of the Gardens…

she lives in Calgary so it is always great to spend time with her when she comes to town…

had just pulled my camera out to take a picture of a butterfly bush when this butterfly decided to land on it… and pose…

surprised how this picture turned out with the light and dark from my shadow…

I love this spot and often sit here for long periods of time… a favourite place where my beloved and I would rest when we walked through the Gardens…

and my kids came for supper… soccer is over, yay… we had a great time, Pokemon-ing and visiting… everyone enjoyed the food and there were leftovers to share for a few meals this week…

kitchen is tidy, laundry is done and I am ready for my return to work after a fun and fleeting break…

I think I enjoyed every moment of the ten days… lots for the memory banks…

coexist…

14 Sunday Aug 2016

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out and about today…

to the grocery store for veggies and a few other things…

the kids came over for lunch and we made individually designed sandwiches along with chocolate milk, pickles and grapes…

they downloaded Pokemon Go on my phone so my middle grandson had his own device to play on…

we went to the Park and wandered through the English Garden and the Leo Mol Garden where there was a jazz concert…

music aficionados filled the space… there was every kind of portable chair you could think of…

and many Pokemon Go players…

four of whom were from my family…

was impressed how well the two groups coexisted in the space… lots of respect, clapping, and quiet play…

got some great photos at the lily pond…

and a few from the English Garden, where the eagle eyes of the oldest spotted two hummingbirds… what a treat… was able to watch them flit about and land on a branch for a moment before darting off…

this was my favourite shot from the English Garden area…