A GOOD LIFE

OK...I know I'm dreadfully behind in my posts, but as most of you know, my Mom passed away unexpectedly on May 31st.

My mom, Mary Elizabeth Reeve (née McCausland), was born October 14, 1918, meaning that she was well on her way to her 92nd birthday when she died of complications following a fall that she had on May 30th. She was born in Calgary, much to her chagrin, as she considered herself totally a Nova Scotian. But her mom happened to be in Alberta when the time came, so there you go....you don't get to choose your birthplace! She grew up in Oxford, Nova Scotia, and went to Acadia University before entering the work world in the Annapolis Valley, Halifax and then onto other opportunities in the province of Quebec. She met our father in Quebec City, at a YMCA dance during WWII. The prairie boy announced to the Maritimes girl that he intended to marry her (much to her skepticism)...and he eventually did (the power of positive thinking!). After the war, they lived briefly in Fredericton while Dad worked on a degree at UNB, and then it was one move after another for pretty much the rest of their marriage...until they made their way out to BC, following their daughters to the west coast. Dad passed away in 2004.

Mom fell in her suite and injured her pelvis. She initially seemed to be doing fine throughout the day on that Sunday (her last words to my sister were, when asked if there was anything that she wanted as my sister was leaving, "I wouldn't mind a chocolate bar"), but by the next morning, everything just began to shut down and she slipped away very quickly. Martha and I are encouraging everyone to eat a chocolate bar in her memory...and it's been quite delightful getting notes from folks saying that they've done just that. So please go ahead and indulge yourself with a wee bit of chocolate.

All this unfortunately happened just as I left on my Alaska cruise; I got the message about her death on our second day out. There wasn't much I could do, so I was encouraged to continue on the cruise. So it was a voyage tinged with sadness. However, my friend Christine and I did toast Mom with a flight of martinis one night. Mom wasn't much of a drinker, but she would have appreciated all the lovely sweet variations on the classic martini that we tried. Sweets were definitely her weakness. (I will post more about the cruise later.)

I got home from the cruise and then was running full-bore doing estate paperwork. Martha and Joe had been handling most of the rest of the details until I could get home. It's been a marathon of sorting, notifying, cancelling, giving away.....and we still have the inurnment to do later this month. Mom didn't want a funeral service, so we'll pick a day to go to First Memorial and see her safely tucked away with Dad in their columbarium niche.

Now I'm just back from 4 days in Abbotsford, running Abby and Zack in the AAC BC/Yukon Regional agility trial. Abby had a good outing (with the exception of her Gamblers runs), and pulled off a third place in the Standard run on Saturday and sixth place in the Jumpers run on Sunday. In the overall aggregrate placings for the regionals, she finished just off the podium in 7th place in her division (the podium is a crowded place with the top six finishers honoured). Zack did his best, but I hadn't really had great expectations for him at this trial as he still seems to be working through whatever issue he suddenly developed last winter. And he definitely did not like running in the heat. Still, he did quite well for where he's at these days. I was proud of both of them.

I'm home for a day or so, then off to Ottawa for four days. Then things should settle down and I'll be able to catch up on everything—including my blog posts! Stay tuned.