Skip to main content

Warrior Wednesday - Lost Battles

rest-in-peaceToday is a sad day as many around the country and world mourn the loss of Gord Downie. I was never really into The Tragically Hip, so I can't say much about that.

Besides, I'm still mourning someone I lost eight years ago to Leukemia.

Before I tell you more about that, I want to take a moment to say FUCK CANCER!!!

I was chatting with a friend earlier today about how much money goes into things like sex toy development and if we spent even half that much on a cure maybe we could stop talking about how shitty cancer is and people dying from it could become a rare event. His thought was that short of a sex toy that cures cancer, it's unlikely to ever happen. He's probably right.

red-dragonfly-2494570_1280Leslie was a friend I had in high school. We ended up in college together in the Social Service Worker program at Canadore College in 2000. Neither of us knew we were taking the same thing until we saw each other there along with another friend also named Leslie.

She loved dragonflies.

As we grew older, Leslie met a cousin of mine and she became part of my family.

She was one of the kindest humans I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, but not in that overly wholesome way. She was very real and that was one of the things I loved about her.

Her social work career took her to some rough places. She did some work up north on reserves helping kids stay away from things like huffing gasoline. She did work at a place with troubled teens who got physically violent at times as well, but she just shrugged that off and kept showing them she cared.

We didn't see each other much in those years. Her schedule sucked when she was back in the same city as me.

When there finally was time, she had very little left. She was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. She was damn determined to fight her hardest though. She kept a blog in those days to update people. We messaged a lot when she was in the hospital. Sometimes it was about things like white blood cell counts and others it was about happier topics.

Unfortunately, she had the worst kind of Leukemia one can get and it won.

I miss the times we had chatting at family barbecues and the days in school. We bought a lot of scratch tickets in those days just because we could.

I miss my friend.

I know people are sad about Gord Downie, but for me October 18th will always be the day I lost my friend.

R~

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Gauntlet That Was October

I had a lot of things happen in October. I watched Frankenstein in the cemetery with friends. I had tea with a friend. I started a new sport: curling. This is really fun and I'm enjoying the level of activity it provides and all the strategic elements. I'll do a separate post on it soon. Unfortunately, soon after my first game, I came down with Covid and so did the friend who I had tea with, so I think we both caught it at the place we went to. That wasn't fun. I already posted about that. I was fortunate to be free of it in time to attend Can-Con where I took in lots of panels, saw some of the wonderful writer community, bought many new books, and volunteered to help out in the rooms. The following weekend, I went to the livestream for Danielle Allard's new album release, followed by the in person release. As part of this, she has a 6 video series that releases every Sunday on her YouTube at 1:15 PM EDT. Video number 2, Falling Into Place, is one that I feel fortunate

Under Siege

My city is under attack. I wish I was being facetious.  The so-called "freedom" convoy is here and so far this is what has transpired: 1. They parked on the war memorial. These people who call themselves patriots. This is where the Unknown Soldier rests. This is where Corporal Nathan Cirullo lost his life in October of 2014. The cars were towed, but who knows what actual repercussions they will face. 2. Later, when asked to move away from memorial, one stood and jumped on the tomb itself while others cheered.  3. Despite having port-a-potties provided for by the mayor, they've been defecating on Parliament Hill, in snowbanks, and on streets nearby.  4. Flags being flown include the Confederate flag of the United States, Trump flags, the Quebec equivalent to the Confederate flag, upside down Canada flags, regular Canada flags, Fuck Trudeau flags, libertarian flags, and ones adorned with swastikas. Yeah, this is totally about freedom rather than racism, white su

December 2023 Holidays

The drive to North Bay was pretty smooth until I was 30 minutes away and ran out of windshield washer fluid. That was the first time that ever happened to me. Luckily, about 10-15 minutes later, there was one last gas station where I could fix that. Since it's my busy season, I worked the mornings and took the afternoons and evenings to spend with family and friends. My brother stopped by with a special gift, a new ornament for the tree. My mom loved ceramic Christmas trees, so it's a perfect way to keep her with us at Christmas. His friend, Fawn, helped him get it made. She has a YouTube channel you can check out here: https://youtube.com/@thethriftyfawn After that, I visited friends in the slightly rural part of Callander, Ontario. We were having a lovely time catching up and then the evening had a surprise in store. Someone in the area had hit a small deer with their vehicle. My friend's dad skinned and gutted it in around -20C (due to the windchill) weather.