Funeral's Over

My Mom's funeral seemed to go okay. The visitation was a little long and 30 mins would have sufficed. The celebration and remembrance of her life went well as did the reception afterwards. The flowers were absolutely fantastic and I took many pics. Even the funeral home staff were impressed. Paul, the minister kept things running smoothly.

Lots of Mom's coworkers were there, as well as my friends ... Brent and Jeanine, Debbie and Bob, Larry, Bill, Gabe, Francis, Paul and Cathy ... thanks for supporting me :-)

I am now in the  Air Canada lounge and seem to have finished off the bottle of Bailey's. I guess I will have to switch to scotch or whisky now. I seem bent on getting a little bit drunk as I lay to rest a significant chapter in my life. 90 mins to boarding.

TTYL,

Here are some pics:

 

Mom Dies

My Mother passed away at 10:30 am today. I was present with my sisters Ann and Elaine and I think my Mother would have liked that. She slipped away peacefully as her body laboured to breathe but eventually her breathing slowed and then stopped.

It is always sad to lose a first parent, but is sadder still when you lose your last parent. Elaine commented that we are now orphans. Old orphans but nevertheless orphans. We are lucky that we still have each other and have family.

The Bruyer Center was an excellent palliative care facility and I highly recommend it to other when they are faced with dying parents.

We spent the Mom's last evening with her after we received a call at 1 am from the evening nurse that Mom was failing rapidly.

Elaine and I went and made funeral arrangements this afternoon. We decided to go for Saturday, March 29th at 1 pm. It will be held at the Hulse, Playfair and McGarry Central Chapel, 315 McCleod Street in Ottawa.

I was originally flying back to Bangkok on Friday night, but changed my flight to Saturday night.

Hope to see you at my Mom's celebration of her life.

TTYL,

Jim

450th Post

This is my 450th post since I started this Blog. I am slowly getting back to posting regularly. A quote from 'Tale of Two Cities' comes to mind ... 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'.

Someday I will share the saga with you. But, not now :-)

I visited my Mom and she is not well. I think the angels will be coming for her soon.

Today, the person who bought my motorcycle is supposed to come pick it up. I will be bikeless once again in my life, but I tend not to stay that way for long. I have had motorcycles since I was 16 and bought a Triumph 650 cc. I crashed it one month later, almost killing myself and my sister Elaine. However, that did not deter me, but it did hurt. If you have never experienced road rash (think hamburger meat) count yourself lucky.

It is another sunny winter (actually Spring) day. Sure beats the hell out of gloomy cloudy dismal  Vancouver winters. There is something to be said for 4 seasons. Most scientific advances came from countries that have 4 seasons. I have a theory on that. Will share later :-)

TTYL,

Jim

Grills Hotel

I received an email form Debbie Grills (previously Wicked Wensley) and she invited me to spend some time in Deep River, about 3 hours from Ottawa. I was passing right by and have been trying to get a visit in for the past 2 years. This was the perfect opportunity. Day 4 was a leisurely 6 hours and I pulled into Deb's place at about 3 pm.

Deb and Bob (husband) have a wonderful place on the Ottawa river with a fantastic view. They are also one of those rare couples that are happily married and very happy with their life together. Bob broke out a bottle of red wine and later that night we dined on my first real Canadian meal in a long time. It was wonderful.

Unfortunately, I hit the wall about 9:30 (5,000 kilometers in 4 days does you in) and I was asleep in minutes. I woke up the next morning to a beautiful sunny winter wonderland, said my goodbyes to Bob and Debbi and commenced the final 3 hour drive to Ottawa.

The drive was uneventful and I arrived back in Ottawa at noon and prepared to go visit my Mom at teh Bruyer Center. She is not doing well, is no longer eating, and has slipped into a coma.

TTYL,

Jim

View from the Grills Motel

 Deb and Bon

 My Travelling Companion - very low maintenance

 The deck

Surrounded by forest or lake

Day 3

I awake at 6 am again and discover that Ontario is one huge province. After about 1,400 kilometers I pull into Sault St. Marie, at, you guessed it, a Super 8 motel.  The scenery is much better, but I don't take too pics as I am in a hurry to get back to Ottawa. My Mom has suffered another stroke.

Day 2

After a night in Brooks, I hit the road at 6 am and 1,200 kilometers later I was in Ontario in Kenora, which appears to be snow mobile country. For some reason I was not in a picture mode, or the prairies do not lend themselves to photo ops.

There was a tremendous amount of black ice in Manitoba and I passed many cars and trucks in the ditch. Kind of all looks the same.

I stop at another Super 8 Motel. They are kind of all the same. Lights out, I am tired.

Vancouver to Ottawa - Day 1

Well, I will never trust Weather Canada again. I drove through about 3 blizzards. In all, I drove about 13 hours and 1,200 kilometers. I am just east of Calgary in a little town called Brooks. I will upload some picks of my drive as soon as dropbox uploads my photos.

It is really hard to take pictures while you are driving, especially in a blizzard. I did not want to stop as I have so far to travel before I sleep.

 My Travelling companion ... Puppy

 Box Canyon Blizzard

 Out of the Blizzard ... temporarily

 Icy roads everywhere

 Blue sky ... for a while

 Then more snow

 Finally after about 5 hours

 Roads remain icy though

 Out of the first mountains

 Kamloops area

 Somewhere ...

 Lake country

 Beautiful country

 Approaching Banf area

 Banf and Jaspar range - starts to get snowing and icy soon

1,200 kms later - Super 8 Motel in Brooks Alberta, and hour or two past Calgary