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.

'Jack' The Rose

What a lovely gesture from special friends - they gave us a beautiful red rose, in memory of dad.


We have placed it right at the front of the house, quite close to the front doorway.  A rose and our puppies in the backyard would be a recipe for disaster.  Besides, this way, we see the rose as we leave for work each morning and return home each afternoon.

And then it occurred to me - the rose would be called "Jack".  How fitting I thought.  Dad loved to putter in the garden at home; either trying to grow tomatoes or tending to the raspberries and his latest project was Uncle Paul's rhubarb in the apartment's garden that our old neighbour Al has looking so beautiful.  I took a picture of the apartment's garden this past trip, but it really did not do it justice.


So alas, we have a rose called Jack in memory of our dear dad who we miss but we are so thankful of the promise we have that we will be reunited again.  Keep blooming dad!

As the Proverb saying goes, "Take time to smell the roses."  See you in the morning "Jack". 

My Holy Discontent - Inclusive! Not Exclusive

Wow, it has been a while since I wrote my last blog article. Life seems to be a bit busy of late, but in the midst of the busyness, a topic that is near my heart has surfaced in recent days.

There is a lot of awareness these days of bullying and harassment; particularly in schools so it tends to target the younger population. I disagree and furthermore, bullying and harassment has always been around and displayed, in my opinion, in cliques; e.g. exclusive groups, not just in schools. Yes, I understand that we cannot be friends with everyone and hence, people generally have a peer group with whom they share  common interests. Take Jesus for example, He had 12 disciples who were His close friends and then had three (3) others whom were His really close mates. But alas, Jesus had a rapport with all the people when He travelled around the countryside sharing His message of love and grace.

I really appreciated reading a post from Joyce Meyer's facebook page just the other day. It said, "The amazing thing about Jesus is that He loves everyone. He excludes nobody."

My memories from when I was school aged are not of my being the most popular or the prettiest; but rather that I felt awkward and fat (a doctor even labelled me as overweight in a report - funny the things you remember!, but no, I was not fat) and although I tried to achieve at sports, I was not very coordinated and I can remember dreading track and field day because I knew there would not be any ribbons coming my way. Funny the things we remember! Hhhmm...

I believe that we all have a desire to belong and to feel accepted and even though we may have received that love and acceptance from our homes and families, the stigma of feeling like an 'outsider' or 'different' in a wrong way in other settings; e.g. school, youth group, leaves an impression on one's heart so that you will do everything within your own power to make sure that people do not feel that way, ever! It is not how God intended!

And here's the thing - are we modelling the inclusive or exclusive behaviour to our children? To the younger generation? Go ahead and ask yourself and answer honestly. Probably because it did affect me in my childhood, I make an extra effort to make people feel noticed and special - it can be as simple as a "smile" and a "hello", giving them a moment of your time.

I have to remind myself daily that some people are oblivious to their behaviour, but alas, it can still hurt - we are human afterall. But, as I am accountable solely for my own behaviour, I will strive to make sure that I am living a life of inclusiveness to others.

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!