Archive for June 21st, 2006

21 Jun 2006 The Longest Day of the Year
Author: Gail |  Category: Loss, Volunteering/Charity, Widowhood  | 3 Comments

Last night was the summer solstice, and yesterday felt longer than usual. Probably because it started far too early for me, an appointment with a counsellor at the medical clinic where I’ve registered. It was the first appointment I could get. The family medical clinic is also a teaching facility, located in a city centre hospital and part of the University Health Network. Because of its proximity to all walks of life and its connection to a large network of resources, I felt more hopeful about therapy than what was available to me in Pennsylvania after David died. I had one session with a therapist at the hospice, and attended one group therapy meeting. U.S. Immigration gave me only 87 days to leave the country, so I focussed all my energy into packing up our house, making arrangements, and figuring out where to live. Then I moved to Toronto.

I have various options here that I could pursue regarding therapy, but since I’m new to the city and to therapy in general, I wanted to see what the counsellor would recommend based on our first meeting. I’m going to write about my therapy experiences, but will keep specific details behind password-protected posts to share with those closest to me. Perhaps in the future I will release those thoughts to the wilds of the internet, but not right now. I’m still trying to keep up the correspondence with my friends and am woefully behind*, so the protected posts will allow me to fill in the long gaps between my replies with information that I won’t share with the surfing public.

Yesterday closed with a long meeting downtown for the fundraiser I’m working on to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society. It’s coming together, but there are a lot of things I want to do, and being new to a city and having no connections means the search for sponsorship is in the dark with a tiny flashlight.

* I’m loath to send bulk email and I can’t bring myself to cobble together emails using the copy-and-paste method. I have a tendency to write painstakingly long messages that I revise and edit ’til the cows come home, which makes for quality email but is terribly inefficient. Hence, this weblog as supplemental communication.

21 Jun 2006 Oh, the Indignity
Author: Gail |  Category: Critters + Creatures  | One Comment

all he needs is a poncho and the indignity is complete get this thing off me!

The only thing separating Hugh from total indignity is a miniature sombrero. And a tiny guitar.

Bogey isn’t that far off, himself:

oh, the indignity oh, the indignity

Thanks to Kathryn, aka knitty_kat and kurly_kat, for creating the item of shame ;) I heard there’s another one…

21 Jun 2006 The Rings
Author: Gail |  Category: Engagement/Wedding, Living with Cancer  | 2 Comments

fundraising bracelet for the Lung Cancer Alliance

Until Holly pointed it out, I hadn’t realised that I hadn’t yet followed through with my plan to take a photo of all three rings together. Before I went to Europe in March, I was thinking of taking photos of the three rings where David visited in 2001: London and Soerendonk (NL). The travel pace was pretty frenetic, so it didn’t happen. But I’m sure I can find more artful ways to display the rings than putting them in the foreground of tourist shots, so in the meantime, here is what they look like.

The top ring is my wedding ring, the middle one is the engagement ring, and the bottom ring is David’s. He had long, bony fingers — “spidery” is what he called them — so we were a similar ring size.

{ continue reading… }