"Does this River go to Heaven?"

Danny passed away on Wed. Oct 20 with Goldie by his side.  The news was expected, and such a feeling of calm came over me, so relieved that his suffering had finally ended...  Lawrence headed to Medicine Hat after dinner to be with his mom & sister.

Quinn took it pretty hard... He and I had a quiet night of cuddles.

I took Thursday off work.  I took Quinn to his school bus.  He had his first school field trip and begged to go.  Lair came home Thursday night.

Because I knew I needed days off for the funeral, I went to work on Friday... I should have stayed home.  I was miserable, crying all day and stressed out trying to arrange coverage for the days off I needed.

We had a Chill weekend.  Just stayed in and enjoyed our little family.

Mon-Thurs, is was hard at work mostly caused by the stress covering my leave.  My boss wasn't managing the situation very well which caused me great anxiety and I was irrationally emotional.

I left work at noon Thursday and we headed to Edmonton...  On the way, we stopped in Airdrie to see Dave Lymburner at the cemetery....  His ashes were put in a column thing - and we were quite surprised that it had no memorial plaque!??   I don't know what we wanted stopping there, but we left feeling like we never have to go there again, as he is not there, but with us always in our hearts...

Friday morning we headed up to Valleyview, 4.5 hours north of edmonton.  This is where Lawrence grew up.  Man is it ever a tint town!  Was neat to see his old stomping grounds and hear his childhood stories.  We met up with all his family at a new hotel.  I took Quinn to bed at 8pm and Lair visited with family.

Saturday, a beautiful day, we all drove about an hour north to a spot along a river where Danny wanted his ashes scattered.  It was a most beautiful spot.   We played some music.  All had red carnations and Kerri poured his ashes into the River.... It was tranquil....

That's when Quinn looked up at me and said "Mommy, is this River going to take Grampa to Heaven?" ...  I couldn't answer him.   We then threw the flowers into the river and Danny's favorite hat.  Quinn asked me again "Mommy, does this river go to Heaven?".... and again, I just couldn't answer him... I just hugged him.

We all then had a glass of Red Wine in Danny's honour and all took a moment to say a few words.


It was truly the most beautiful and moving Memorial/Funeral I've ever been to.


That evening, some close friends of the family opened there home for a Celebration.  Food, Friends, Family and drinks.  It was a lot of fun!

Lawrence read the Eulogy.  He worked long and hard on it.  When he stood up to speak Quinn stood up with him and held onto his leg.  It was a beautiful moment.

EVERYONE got pretty drunk!  Especially me an Lair.  But it was a good drunk.  We had fun and got to talk with family and have a good old time.

That is of course, until Sunday morning.  Oh my gosh we were both So hungover!!  But we had to get our buts in gear as it was Halloween and we had a 4.5 hr drive to get to Edmonton in time to go trick or treating with Ursula.  She bought Quinn an awesome costume - a Clone Trooper (new age star wars thing?).

The kids had a blast.  The love and support from Albert & Ursula was exactly what we needed after our exhausting weekend.


Monday afternoon we packed up and headed back to Calgary.

Upon arrival, it was late so we put Quinn straight to bed.  I was mortified to discover Quinn's fish & snail (Johnny & zippy) had passed away while we were gone....  :(  What?   How is it they totally survived for 10 days when we were on holidays, then the croak when we're away for 3.5 days?  I was pretty upset (I was very attached to them)....

Lair flushed them and I tossed the tank.  I didn't know how to tell Quinn....  So we didn't....  And he hasn't even noticed they are gone!?   Crazy.