In 2021 we took our longest ever overlanding trip to Moab Utah from Vancouver BC and Calgary, AB. It is always when I go to the other end of the country something happens and I actually think there is something to it all.
My G'ma and I were very close. She was the most wonderful cook, and actually one of the first VEGANs in BC. People use to call my grandparents crazy to their face for being vegan! My grandparents just knew more about nutrition from having read a tonne on the subject. Common beliefs like needing protein from animals sold to the public provided them much entertainment. My grandfather was the fanatic about health but my grandmother was the one to make it all happen.
I got a the call that my grandma was passing in Salt Lake city. I knew she was not doing well, but I didn't think it was really going to be the last time we joked around. My family was there in the room with her and I was on a video call with them all in the hospital room. I had seen her only a few short weeks earlier at her 91st birthday party. When the call suddenly dropped for no reason, a feeling came over me. I felt like she was with me for a brief moment. That flash of disconnection was her passing.
She donated her body to science so there was no real funeral. I went to the funeral ceremony at UBC and it was what she wanted and I got to see why, and what that is all about. It was a final lesson about science. That was an amazing human. She apparently had the power to know when she was going to pass. I did't know that was a thing but now that I have experienced it, I see that it is.
Here is my G'ma making a funny face at their Kelowna, BC home in about 2005. That house was burned down the year following my G'ma's passing during Kelowna's huge wild fires in 2023. Another reminder that you can never go back.
There was always a great spread of food and good fun times. She loved to entertain and was so damn smart, would roast everyone and destroy continuously everyone at scrabble.
It feels like just the other day I was 18 and my grandparents were young but as my son turns 18 and my grandparents are gone, it highlights how important it is to make memories. It is important to have fun times around the dinner table, no drama just have a good time. Let everything slide, just have a good time. Make light of problems, just enjoy the people who you love and who love you.
Thanks for being so good to us and for all the cookies and toys.
Love you G'ma.