Mr. Paul

My step father Paul passed away on Saturday. He was 88 years old and had a massive stroke on Wednesday. By Friday he was in a coma and slipped away quietly Saturday morning.

Paul and BB married in 1998. Paul had been married a few times before. Divorced once, widowed twice. My mom was his second dutch wife. He said he came trained. Good thing.

Paul and BB had 8 happy years living together until the dementia took over Pauls life and he was unable to live at home anymore requiring full time care.

I loved Paul. He was funny, smart, generous, kind and treated my mom like a queen. He was a Pastor, Evangelist, Missionary and lived to serve Jesus.

Though you were gone a long time ago Paul we still will miss you.

engaged!

amazing excitement.

chris and i went to hawaii for vacation and the greatest surprise in the world happened.
sitting on the lanai, enjoying the beauty of the ocean, admiring the palm trees, watching the surfers, drinking my coke and she hands me a card.

we have always given each other cards. for special occasions and not. just because. sometimes we read cards to each other in the store. just for fun.

i opened the card. then i realized it was personal. it was just for me. it was the story of us. how we grew up on opposite ends of the country and one day we joined our hearts together.

and then the question.

she asked me to marry her and

i said YES!

yes to the rest of my life as us.

And we're back! What a great week! We spent a week in Kelowna and had a lot of fun. There are so many wineries to pick from so we chose 3 of our faves to go and have a tour or tasting. Interesting process to watch. Met lots of nice people who were doing the same thing.


Boat cruise on the lake with live jazz one night. The weather was perfect. Music was great and the food was excellent.

After we left Kelowna we drove through OK Falls and onto Osoyoos. Stayed at a wonderful place right across the street from the lake. The Canucks game was on so we watched that and cheered our team to victory!

It's back to work now but it sure was nice to have a week off.

It's time for a break. The past few months have been such a blur of travelling back and forth to Abby, back and forth to work full time, back on night shift and not seeing each other Monday to Friday, we need a break.

So, thanks to the generosity of my friend Christine we are heading to Kelowna to use her time share for the week. Pray for nice weather. Time to relax, renew, refresh and just hang out with each other, doing what we do best.

Aloha!

No, not Hawaii (for now) but the Okanagan. But the picture was taken in Hawaii at one of my fave hang-outs, Moose's.

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day has always been special with BB and I as I was born on Mother's Day. Every so many years my birthday falls on MD but we always have had a special celebration because of it. Chris's birthday is May 4 so since she's been around we have made it a 3 way celebration.

Chris and BB have been friends from the start. I've started reading some of BB's journals and I found the entry for the first time she met Chris. It said "met Chris today, she is very nice, fits nicely in our family". And that's a compliment! Chris has always treated my mom with a great deal of love and respect and over these past couple of months without my mom knowing it, Chris has given me a great deal of emotional support. She's taken time off work to be with us as BB transitioned to the Facility, spent countless hours in the hospital visiting her and has been to visit her when I haven't been able to.

I am thankful for a Godly, loving mom that I have known all of these years. She raised me in the love of the Lord and learning how to do things "proper" BB has a wonderful sense of humour and even now as her mind is quickly fading away her humour is constant making nurses laugh.

This is a different Mother's Day for sure, the first one with a mother present in body but not in mind.

Happy Mother's Day Mom. I love you very much.

Life just seems to be moving so fast these days. I can't keep up. BB had another fall and now has a giant goose egg on the back of her head. She isn't sleeping at night so they've put her in a private room hoping that the quietness will give her some peace. She's very restless and has a hard time making sentences make sense at all. They've diagnosed her with Alzheimers so she's getting medication for that.

I'm now looking at putting her on a list to get to a facility closer to my home. She has always wanted to stay in Abbotsford where she has lived the past 27 years because she loves it there and has a wide social network. But now she doesn't seem to know any of her friends or recognize that they have visited.

Now it's time to let go of her apartment and close that chapter of her life. Very sad.
I'm not sure what the next step should be. Oh Lord, give me wisdom.

Becky came for an unexpected visit this weekend. What a joy this little dog is. Her presence lights up a room. When we were visiting my mom in the Hospital a couple of weeks ago Becky was with us. We pushed BB's w/c to the lobby/seating area and little bb did her very best to bring cheer and life to a frail old lady.

2 very special BB's. One in a Care Facility looking out the window wondering when the Lord will take her home. And one little bb bringing life and light to the darkness with her sweet spirit and gentle nature.

God has put some really special people in my life and I am thankful for friends who send me encouraging notes, phone calls, visits just to say they love me. Chris is amazing and I am forever thankful for her strong support.

Loving all of you.