Holding unto Memories of Mom

My summer of 2011... both the best and worst summer of my life.

 Snickers and I had traveled back to Canada, to see my mother one last time as she was dying of cancer and the doctors told us it wouldn't be long before she'd be leaving us.

 It was an extremely hard reality to accept but friends and family were so incredibly supportive and I'll never forget their awesomeness.  One of my friends sent me this -- a boquet of fresh fruit -- which I just thought was the coolest things ever!!!  

At our annual family BBQ reunion, all my relatives surprised me with a birthday cake and signed card they all wrote personal messages in.  It definitely helped to raise my spirits.

I had spent every day at the hospital for a month before my parents suggested I take a day off to do something for myself.  I decided to jump the GO Train and head to Toronto for the CanFit Expo where not only did my Korean boxing tank top score the attention of friends unaware I was there but also a Korean trainer who wanted to do a live recorded interview with me.  I also met Robert Kenedy, the now desessed editor and owner of my favourite magazine -- Oxygen Fitness.  I also met his beautiful wife, Tosca Reno, who has become the face of clean eating and is quite a positive role model for me.

I knew Richard Simmons would be there but I didn't anticipate really getting to talk to him.  I had simply promised my mother I'd try to shake his hand.  Well, I got so much more than that.  Got to train beside him during an aerobics class with thousands of spectators watching us, scored a hug and during the aerobics class he even kissed my belly button.

Click HERE to see the YouTube video I made of it.

I also got to meet my oldest brother's new addition -- his third daughter.

 After my mother's passing, I stuck around for another month to help my father and to finish some of her undone business.  My mother's fascination with snowmen is quite cute but she had stolen this particular one from a class friend.  I wrote up a ransom note for it and within a day she came to make the exchange.  

My mother's passing also put my father into a new light.  He was no longer my father who had lost my mother but a man who had lost the love of his life.  He'd ramble on about back-in-the-day stories and I'd listen.  He had even saved the first level of their wedding cake.  It's now hard as a rock, of course, but I thought it made for quite the grand romantic gesture on his behalf.