Merry Christmas

It is hard to imagine it's Christmas tomorrow. December has been so full already for many reasons - of course losing Grandma (please see my post below) was very hard but a chance to reflect with family. Then I was also given a bit of a ride on my familiar roller coaster with lower than normal bloodcounts showing up a few weeks back, and repeated tests last week dropped further. Yesterday the counts were about the same, so at least they weren't lower. After a discussion with Dr. B, it seems the likely cause may be the medication I am taking to try to reduce my scleroderma, which can cause low hemoglobin. To be sure, the docs will have me do weekly bloodwork for a while and then we'll reevaluate the cost-benefit of taking the medication.

So uncertainty continues to play it's part in life! It's another reminder to take in the day as much as you can and focus on the good stuff. Like decorating trees...I helped decorated 4 this year: Tasha and Talyn's, Colleen, Allan, Grady and Joelle's, the Calgary Emergency Women's Shelter's, and Mom and Dad's. All of them very different and all contributing to the Christmas spirit.

I also was able to get to a few Christmas lunches, dinners and parties - everything from a simple lunch with a friend to my PwC Holiday Party to a "Drink the Christmas Tree Dry" party that included a tree decorated with tiny bottles that you picked off and drank (I did not help decorate or undecorate that one!) - and again all different and all contributing to the Christmas spirit.

We kind of already celebrated Christmas last weekend...Saturday Dad made Gnocchi for 3 of his siblings and their spouses - Marty and Karen, Mary Ellen and Bob, and (from Scotland) Louise and Dave. Sunday morning we had Christmas Morning Wifesafer, Citrus Pull-Aparts and cinnamon "donuts" as the boys call them, and we opened our gifts before they left Monday for Saskatchewan to spend Christmas with Dana's family. The boys' playing with their new Ironman robots was pure entertainment. Wednesday night I had dinner with Tasha, Talyn and Tasha's brother Chad and we exchanged gifts as well, before they left for Regina yesterday.

So Christmas itself will be pretty quiet. Which is another rare gift that we don't often see any more! It's really a season anyway, although it often ends up as one day to cram every possible person you love into, along with every special meal you ever dreamed of...so I will be happy to nap, play cards, watch movies and just enjoy the calm. And oh yeah, pack for my other favourite place...Maui. We leave New Year's Eve and Colleen, Allan, Grady and Joelle will also be there....so Mele Keliki Maka!

I wish you all a Merry Christmas season as well, and hope it continues into 2011. I am so thankful to be healthy and happy and loved - I wish for you the same. Cheers!

Tricia

An incredible woman

A few days after my last post, on December 6, my aunt Colleen phoned my mom to tell her Grandma had passed away. She was in her room and her new care home - and Colleen had visited less than hour before. Mom had just returned from visiting her the day before, and it was only weeks since I was in Vancouver to see her, along with Bob and Mom. I know she finally decided she was ready.

And while I feel so good about the peace she now has after such a long time with so little ability to live to the level she had all her life, it is hard to imagine the world without Amanda Gunn.

I had always heard stories about her earlier life, as a sister to several siblings in a large French family, growing up in Lebret, Saskatchewan. She loved and was loved by all her family and everyone knew her strength, beauty and compassion right from her childhood through to her adult life. Mom, Bob and Colleen's love and admiration for Grandma, along with the pictures of her and Grandpa were all evidence that she was an amazing mother and wife.

For me, she was a friend and a protector. She had come many times to stay with us when I was growing up and I was always happy when she did. Grandma always talked to me like I was grown up, like I was her friend, but loved me and protected me like I was her grandchild. When I was doing treatment for leukemia, grandma came to Calgary and stayed with me when I was out of the hospital. She had an ability to help without hovering! We could talk about anything and did. Her positive attitude and strength was always an inspiration to me.

My grandma was the youngest elderly person I knew - she walked a few miles a day right until her stroke, she drove a Mustang into her 70s, and we celebrated her 75th birthday in Las Vegas, with grandma awake into the late hours. After her 80th birthday party, weeks before her stroke, she was on an Alaskan cruise. I always said her social life was better than mine (and that was when I was in my 20's!). She travelled many places on her own over many years - from MacDonald's for coffee in the morning to Europe to Hawaii to the Maritimes - everywhere she went she met and impacted people who kept in touch with her for years.

She was a classy woman. A fighter. Strong. Compassionate. Loving. Funny. Beautiful.

She helped shape who I am. I loved her so much and will miss her.