Well, it has been a while since my last post so I figured I would sit down and try and bring things up to date.
The first item is that we had no sooner got home from our trip to New Caledonia when we had a visit from the police. They had the unenviable task of having to tell us that our son Justin had died. I just cannot put into words the shock and the grief that followed. To help deal with this tragedy our son James invited us to Winnipeg to spend Thanksgiving with him and his family. And our youngest, Jordan, flew in from southern Ontario. To be with family and friends at such a time can be very therapeutic although even now I can’t help wonder if we could have done something even though in my heart I know we did all that we could.
For those who remember him and those he never met here is a picture I took the summer before last in Edmonton:
We all joined James and his family at his in-laws, Marlene and Peter Sedor`s home for Thanksgiving dinner. It is hard to describe how this trip did help the healing begin although it wasn't easy. In the end Janice and our daughter in-law, Courtenay, drove out to Edmonton via Calgary to pick up Justin’s ashes as we had made arrangements to have his remains cremated. I drove back to Nipigon on my own but it didn't take long for another wrinkle to appear as I had an accident while still inside the city limits. Due to a number of factors my attention was diverted away from what was going on ahead of me until it was almost too late. Only at the last second did I notice the red light at the intersection I was entering and while I braked immediately it was too late to avoid colliding with a vehicle crossing in front of me. But thankfully soon enough that I only caught their back corner. As it turned out both vehicles were not damaged too seriously, or at least not enough to make either incapacitated. We shared our insurance and other information, including getting help from several witnesses who made sure we were okay. Before long I was the only one remaining. Even though a call had gone out to the police no one showed so I continued my journey home much more cautiously and even more subdued than when I had began.
Oh, and here is a picture of the remnants of our family taken that weekend at James house (Jordan on the left and James on the right):
For the next couple of months I worked on the project associated with the trip to New Caledonia, one that turned out to be far more involved than I had originally expected. But it was, at least for me, good therapy.
Jordan, James, Courtenay, Daelyn and Desiree as well as Janice’s sister Linda all came to spend Christmas with us. I must admit that in recent years I have found Christmas is just not the same without young kids around! We tried to plan a number of activities to keep everyone entertained: James, Courtenay, Jordan and I attended a curling funspiel; I had a brush pile that needed burning so we had a bonfire; while there wasn’t much snow we did get in some snowmobiling; and Jordan and I went out ice fishing a couple of times out at camp.
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