My Condensed Story Of The Past 12 Plus Months

So yeah, where do I begin?  I am really not sure, so I will start somewhere.  A lot has happened since my last blog post and I really do want to write more for the rest of this year.  I will start here and reflect more over the past 12 months plus in other blog posts.

The past 12 months plus has had some highs but a lot of lows and challenges, too and the stresses continue, but I am pressing on with God's help each day; sometimes I take it one hour at a time and sometimes I take it one moment at a time.

Timeline to give you some perspective of my story. My Dad passed away very suddenly Aug 2011; my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer early 2012 and her Mom (my Grandma Mason) passed away May 2012.  Mom underwent horrific chemo and radiation treatment and mastectomy of one breast and the chemo left her heart damaged.  Mom maintained an amazing attitude as always and recovered from her surgery and treatment and we thought she had beat the horrible disease.  My family and I (husband Peter and step-daughter Chasely) travelled to Canada in December 2013/January 2014 to visit Mom and family and friends and later in 2014 Mom learned that the cancer had metastasized to her liver, kidney and blood.  Not the news Mom or our family wanted to hear.  Mom had a couple of chemo treatments but these were to go on for many weeks and the odds of remission very low and had made her very sick in a very short time frame, so Mom opted for quality of life.  What an incredibly brave woman our Mom was and to her dying day.

I flew to Canada early Feb 2015 which enabled me to spend some quality time with Mom and those memories will always be so precious to me.  I am so grateful for the time I was able to spend with Mom and the opportunity to be able to help her in the days leading up to her passing.  A friend gave me some great advice and that was to journal about my visit with Mom - precious writings, indeed.  Many special moments shared.  Another friend encouraged me to video Mom, too along with the photos I took and one of my projects is to create a movie of Mom (but I think I will need to invest in a new computer to do that - my faithful notebook/laptop that still uses XP is close to calling it quits I think).

My beautiful Mom and I - we had lunch with her Red Hat Mama's.

The Grimes' Special Merry Christmas Wish to you

Hello to our friends & family (on every side of the globe), 14 December 2011


It is with mixed emotions that I write this year's Christmas Letter.  Most of you will have heard that Peter and I were planning on visiting Canada this Christmas and had booked our trip in July and had arranged to see the Miracle of Christmas with Mom and Dad in Pennsylvania and we were all very excited.  But alas, Dear Dad went home to be with the Lord at the end of August and we moved our trip up for obvious reasons.


Whilst it was a very bitter sweet trip, we were also able to catch-up with a lot of family and friends and at times the trip seems so surreal, but we captured some great pictures and below are a few collages I have created.  There were so many highlights of the trip; for Peter – the Blue Jays Baseball Game and for me – the lovely afternoon at Niagara-On-The-Lake with Mom and Peter, not to mention all of the wonderful visits with family and friends.  I have also included an awesome picture that was taken of Mom and Dad just the week before he took his final flight home.

So, we will be spending Christmas at home in Springfield Lakes this year but a lovely bonus will be seeing Chase on Christmas Day.

Our year started with the devastating floods in January and Peter and I had the opportunity of helping a couple John and Gael from the Centenary Suburbs and we have since caught up with them over a lovely dinner and heard the story of their house being rebuilt.  Even now as I have started writing our letter, I am sitting along Brisbane Terrace in Goodna that was completely under water and it seems so surreal to imagine that it even happened, but I only have to look across the street and I can see the evidence as some houses are still bare, waiting for reconstruction of their walls and residents waiting for insurance settlements.  They are predicting another wet summer again but they are keeping a close eye on the levels of the dam this year.  I still remember our drive back to Brisbane from Gladstone after spending Christmas with Beth (Peter's mum) and how the road was closed because it was flooded, and even when it was finally clear for us to pass, the level of water was so high to the bridge, it was incredible and scary all at the same time.  I have included a picture which might help you appreciate it a tiny bit.

VISIT WITH GRANDMA MASON

Me and my Grandma Mason!

I'll keep this entry short, but will try and write more later........... Grandma Mason didn't miss a beat - she recognized me immediately when I came into the library where she was having her dessert.

You see Grandma is suffering a bit of dementia, but hey, she is doing well for 89.


A big thank you to my little bro John and niece Allison and nephew Nicholas for organising the visit and for the great Sushi Lunch Feast!

My beautiful niece was so excited to see Grandma and she was showing Grandma the pictures from the special celebratory day we had recently at Aunt Barb's.

Love this shot!

THE BLESSINGS OF FRIENDS!

I have alot to be grateful for - I have been blessed with very special friends!

And I wanted to see everyone on this trip to Canada, but my time always goes by too quickly and travelling around the place is pretty tiring, so I arranged for the visit to be a bit different this trip! And it worked out great!

I emailed an invitation to friends (& family, too - yep, some can be both believe it or not!) to visit me at my parents' apartment in the hometown where I spent most of my growing up years! Not everyone could come which I completely understand - it was a bit short notice (remember, my trip was a surprise, so noone knew I was travelling overseas until some received the invite), but I really appreciate everyone that made the effort because some had to drive in from out of town.

We had some nibblies - savouries and sweets and punch - raspberry/cream soda & sorbet.

Here's my spread.


It was great seeing all of you and thanks for the emails and phone calls, too!

Here's a collage I created from the day!

I found a great coffee mug in the Christian Bookstore yesterday and I love what is written on it!

The Joys of a Lifetime are times shared with Family and Friends.
Favorite People, Favorite Places, Favorite Memories of the past - These are the joys of a lifetime. Those are the things that last!

I'll say "Amen" to that!

PS - Can't wait to enjoy a coffee in that mug, too!

FAMILY CELEBRATIONS! ALOT TO BE THANKFUL FOR!

What a great cake! Happy 70th Birthday Mom (Bev), Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary Mom and Dad (Bev & John) - top left, Happy Retirement Uncle Gary - top right, Happy Recovery Karen - bottom left and Welcome Riley - bottom right.
Aunt Barb gave a lovely speech and handed out celebratory Hawaiian lei's to the special people. Aunt Barb said it beautifully, too - our family had a lot to celebrate and to be thankful for! Yes, indeed...life is too short!

Aunt Barb - can I post the picture of you giving the speech? Thanks Aunt Barb.


Aunt Barb had a beautiful bouquet with flowers from her garden and I love these 2 pictures... The photo of mom and dad was taken by me - we were going to a wedding that day...I'll have to look in my album when I return home to work out the date. The other picture is mom and her siblings with Grandma Mason. God bless Grandma, she is still living, but has recently been placed in a nursing home in Simcoe - I'm hoping to get to see her.


This is a picture of mom and dad I took on the day of the party. Love you mom and dad.

SURPRISE!!!!

Who doesn't like surprises? Well, I have got a good one to share with you.....

My Mom and I were co-conspirators in the plan to surprise my dad and family and friends for a very special occasion. You see, it is Mom's 70th birthday this month, Aug 5 to be exact and Dad and Mom celebrate their Golden Anniversary this month - 50th - on Aug 29.

So Mom's sister Barb was organising a special day for the family to get together on Aug 16 and mom sent me an email on a whim back the middle of July hoping that I may be able to make a special trip to help celebrate this momentous occasion. Well, God blessed me with His favour to allow the plans to work out and yep, the surprise was successful.

We couldn't tell many folks because we did not want to risk any information leaking out and someone writing something up on facebook, and nope, dad nor my brother John could believe it when Mom told them the news of my arrival.

Thursday morning Aug 13, Peter and I headed to the Brisbane, Queensland, Australia airport at 8:30 am and after 24 hours of travelling, I arrived at my parent's apartment at approximately 11:00 pm the same evening in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada (yeah, do that math, eh?).
Stay tuned for tomorrow when I post a follow-up article and more pictures of my trip so far and the big day we had celebrating with family several significant happenings.


Also, more details to follow, but I'm planning an open house at Mom and Dad's for friends and family this coming Saturday to pop in for visit if you are free.

Well, it is late now here in Canada....12:44 am to be exact; so I'll wish you all a good night or good afternoon depending on which time zone you are reading this post in!