Tag Archives: memories

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…

competition…

20 Friday Jan 2017

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watching skating on tv tonight and thinking of my dear friend Ellen…

when I come across a skating competition I still turn to grab the phone to give her a reminder call, lol… 

we would always call one another when one of the events came on to be sure the other knew about it… and once it was over we would spend time debriefing…

lovely memories…

gifts…

17 Saturday Dec 2016

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wonderful time with my BS buddies this morning…

we weren’t all available this coming Monday evening, our usual time to gather… so we arranged to meet today…

when we come together for a meal we usually go out to a restaurant, but we decided to meet here and ordered breakfast from The Original Pancake House, using SkipTheDishes…

it was great… I had my favourite chicken livers and others had crepes and pancakes… even the eggs that came were beautifully cooked… we had a wonderful visit as we ate and shared gifts…

these women are an integral part of my life and spending time with them is always a gift… we’ve met most Monday evenings for years and have shared everything, from the everyday through children’s shenanigans and growing pains, work changes and life changing events…

we try to get a photo when we have one of these special gatherings, could be Christmas, or a birthday celebration… nearly forgot today… thankfully the youngest one remembered, lol…

lots of laughter as we set up and tried to get a good remote shot, lol…

we don’t need gifts, but some of us — me especially — love them… they come from the heart… today there was fruit bread and shortbread, jam, soup mix and chocolate, lotions and towels, donations, ornaments and beautiful cards…

so blessed to have these moments together…

focussing…

13 Tuesday Dec 2016

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been thinking a lot of friends and those in my circles who are struggling with various life situations…

this time of year is difficult for so many… nearly everyone has memories of those who might be gone for the first time this year, or they might be thinking of past celebrations with loved ones… there are those who don’t have anyone to spend time with, whether it is because of family being away or estranged or just not having anyone… it can make for difficult moments…

recently someone pointed out the importance of listening, not focussing on what you want to add to a conversation…

trying hard to focus and celebrate the special moments and let the not-so-special ones go… 

today I was treated to rice rolls which I love… a lovely moment… had them for my dinner… 

didn’t put them in the fridge so they wouldn’t be cold when I ate them… yummy…

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…

snuggles…

25 Sunday Sep 2016

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another fall day… overcast with rain off and on…

drove to the Formal Gardens at the Park and walked two loops… it was drizzling about half the time I was walking…

needed poke balls and this is a great place to find PokeStops and get in the walking, all at the same time… 

the actual garden always looks lovely and you can see how the wind was blowing…

the trees are starting to change colour and it was hard to decide which picture to put up…

last time I walked in this spot a friend shared that her family had a memorial bench for her husband there, as they would walk this circle and he often needed to stop and take a break… 

the bench says stop and rest awhile so I sat down for a few minutes and listened to the geese flying overhead… a special moment… reminded me of George and my special bench in the Leo Mol Garden and the memories that fill my heart when I sit there, even now…

still haven’t seen the trees turning red in the East so I’m always looking for bright colours here, lol…

when I got home after running a few errands I had the marvellous gift of spending an hour with this lovely baby and her mom… and my Ottawa daughter via FaceTime… we had a wonderful visit and lots of baby snuggles…

snuggled up on the bed, watched tv and read while my dinner was cooking…

road…

22 Thursday Sep 2016

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tonight I saw a commercial on tv that had the Willie Nelson song On the Road Again in it… it was about a particular brand of car, although I can’t remember which one…

brought back so many memories… really old ones, lol…

George had made a cassette tape (see how long ago!) that we would put on every time we left on vacation…

the first song was On the Road Again… and when we got into the car and it started playing it was the sign that we were on holidays…

I don’t remember any of the other songs, just that both of us enjoyed them… eventually I think the girls even liked the tape…

keeping me steady as I stepped into Goose Spit…


I also remember hearing this song as part of his memorial service… my nephew put together a video using pictures that the girls chose from our many photo albums… this song was one of the two that he used…

supporting me, as always, as I rested on the bench…

this is one of my favourite photos… it was at our younger daughter’s wedding and I was recovering after a six week hospital stay and six weeks at home… 

I continue on the road, but now it is a solo journey… pretty sure he’s proud of me and my big girl pants…

lucky…

30 Tuesday Aug 2016

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this morning I had a memory on Facebook of my youngest grandson, as a baby, swinging in a park close by… there was also a picture of he, his older brother and my beloved on the back deck that same day…

just last Friday, when the boys were here, we talked about swinging in that very park…

today, the kids came downtown, spent a few minutes playing Pokemon Go at the Millennium Library Park, and then picked me up for lunch…

we went for dimsum at Kum Koon Garden, our favourite…

they have a stunning salt water fish tank and my grandson took a few pictures for me…

he had my phone because we share a Pokemon Go account so whenever we’re together he is checking out the game, lol…

the point of this story is how lucky I am to have the opportunity to spend time with my kids and grandkids… and how lucky we both were to be able to make memories with our grandchildren…

camping, day 11…

31 Sunday Jul 2016

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been another full day…

up early, took down the tent and packed the vehicles…

then we headed to the beach for our last day of water fun…

went fishing to start the day off… son-in-law caught two Jackfish which we tossed back as they weren’t very big… amazing how long the little boys last without complaining about being bored…

then we spent time on the beach as numerous family members arrived… it was really hot… the shore was crazy full of boats and people, although there were not nearly as many watercraft on the lake… 


saw a few native water lilies as we entered the channel…

four boats and a seadoo crossed the lake together to the Death Swing, where my daughter cut her heel on the propeller, bled a bit and it will be irritable for a while whenever she bends her ankle, but she’s okay…

great fun watching people swing off the ropes into the water… 


there were probably fifty boats there… great calm area for a refreshing swim…

saw an eagle as we headed back across the lake…


last few minutes of our ride across…


not sure if I’ll get any more in this year…

dinner at The Nest and heading home…


lots of wonderful fun memories…