triumphgal

September 15, 2026

Today was more stable than yesterday. I think part of the problem is that September is usually the month that I have less client work so I take vacation but I’m not taking a vacation this month because I’m in the play. Having time on my hands during the workday makes me worry that I am forgetting to do something. This complicated brain of mine just can’t let me take a break. I did get an awful lot done though even on things that aren’t due until the end of next month and worked until six before I headed to F&B for something to eat and time to study my lines. I ended up having a nice visit with the owner Mike and then his wife Heather, who I’ve known much longer. It suddenly occurred to me that she is a hairdresser and we need a Hair! person for the play and she is involved with front of house, but I asked her if she would be interested in coming and being our Hair! lady for the run of the show and we had a lovely emotional moment.

At 8 PM it was my rehearsal time and we worked through the first portion of act two where I actually get to be a little lighthearted because I have a more casual relationship with my brother in the show. It’s a time to lessen the intensity and enjoy a little comic timing, which I do know that I am good at and will improve with each rehearsal, but I did love hearing the director laugh.

I had a real miss Rosie moment today. She was such a support to me through all of this and has known me since well for 61 years. She is 13 years older than me, but much like a big sister and confident. I wish we weren’t 6 1/2 hours away from each other driving time. I did write her a card and pop it in the mail for her birthday next week.

Even more than my girlfriends who came to visit, she knows me. Mostly because we have kept connection through all of the years where that wasn’t always so with the others. That was the part that was mostly relaxing though, these are people that you don’t have to explain a lot to, you can just be you and I’m not entirely sure that I have that person here on the regular.

September 14, 2026

Greg called today to let me know he was on his way to pick up Mrs B’s ashes which are to be interred on Saturday with Dads. We were both surprised that there is a marker for Dad. I shall visit it next time I am on Salt Spring.

Grief continues to pour out of my soul.

Our Strata Council meeting was short and sweet as we become finer tuned and get things done

Afterwards I came home to puzzle and watch the Emmys. I am now crying over Michael J Fox. Mom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s after too long of feeling its effects. In many ways I am grateful that the Cancer took her so fast.

But damn, I miss her

September 13, 2026

I had a very good sleep in and worked on sorting for a puzzle. Once I showered and gathered items I realized I needed new opaque black tights so I tried to dodge the rain and headed to Winner’s. I had put my contacts in so I had to use my phone to zoom in on the sizes. That was a first but very useful.

At 1 we all gathered at the theatre to put on our costumes, makeup and hair. I have a small wig that matched my hair perfectly and rolls into a bun which stays put with many bobby pins and hair spray. It struck me as funny when Sandy Kaye mentioned that I have close ears and am lucky. It was not one of my assets that I’d noticed before, but now I have been obsessing over ears in the shows I’m watching. The corset was the perfect addition and it was funny to have Michael, who plays my husband, assist with the lacing. I am getting to know the cast better and still find this style of direction something to get used to. Our stage manager agreed that this is very different. I’m sure it will all pull together, but I think we need more rehearsal time.

The whole experience was lovely and we had our pictures taken for social media.

I puzzled and watched some shows. It was a nice day

September 12, 2026

I was up at 6 and Brett picked me up to head out to St Eugene Resort. I am the parking coordinator and the crew was Brett, Paul Heywood, Robin Hicks and her sister Diana from out of town. It was a cool start but the sun came out and all the happy riders began arriving. It was complicated because Brett is use to taking control of every situation. We butted heads a bit but he did apologize later. That’s what friends do.

I got home around 10 and wanted a nap but tomorrow promises rain so I made myself get out and mow the lawn. Parts of it were more like haying than mowing

It heated up to 25 outside so I stayed in and did all the bed stripping and laundry. And I continued watching ‘Your Friends and Neighbours’ and did a few Lego sets. I’ve been collecting for a long time and it’s nice to get them done. I am running out of shelf space though and will have to figure that out before I do the three bigger sets left.

It was nice to have a surprise visit from cousin Donna. I know she’s checking to see if I am okay. I appreciate it, but honestly, I don’t know how I am doing.

September 10, 2026

Rotary lunch was entertaining as Jason Caven gave his member bio. We have a shared love for Scott Niedermayer

After a trying afternoon with a client leading to me having to enter over $6000 worth of petty cash receipts, I came home and built Lego and watched Silo until Brett picked me up to go to the Gran Fondo Vollie party.

It was fun catching up and I won a snoopy mug which I sent home with Brett for his girls. Lallah invited us to the casino after and I admit it had been a while and I enjoyed it

A woman called about our strata as they are planning to buy for their daughter and she was happy to hear my responses

I finished a couple builds and relaxed

I also mailed 6 cats to Mom’s cousin Bonnie in Bellevue and it was over $60! She is reimbursing so it will be less for her in $Us

September 9, 2026

Today was complicated. I did enjoy the meeting with my new client followed by the lunch time Rotary Board meeting. After the meeting we met at the Creekside Village construction site for a photo op. It’s really coming along and it made me miss building

Back at the office I nosed dived into a random fix for a part time client before tackling resetting Moms iPad for Emmy. Only mistake I made so far was not doing that before cancelling her phone and email, and I can’t remember her iCloud password. I had to fill out a form and send the death certificate and will to prove it could be canceled. It wrecked me.

I’m not sure it is supposed to be easy to erase a person one step at a time but, for some reason this was very hard.

I came home and finished my puzzle, built a couple Lego and continued watching Silo because it took me out of my head.

September 8, 2026

Up and off to work, much done, CCT AGM and home

Puzzled and finished Ted Lasso to date.

Not surprised my ankle aches with the stats. Wire it out by Saturday.

Tired of the tariff wars, all wars actually

September 7, 2026

Once again, I tried to sleep and it didn’t work so well, but apparently I’m getting enough sleep so I got up and got my laundry done and watched some shows and took one last look in Mom’s jewellery box thank goodness as I found a few treasures still in there, which are precious

I went and met Steph Moore to give her the chair we used for the Rotary out of storage which will now be used for our play.

It has been raining most of the day so I had to excuse not to go out and work in my garden. Instead, as I watched Mayday, I first built my Simpsons living room, and then started on the space stars Lego puzzle The movie was very good. I zipped off to rehearsal for 730 and we were done before nine which was nice. I then came home and worked some more on the puzzle and continued watching Ted Lasso.

The girl sent me a picture of themselves with Kris the fifth of our group who lives in Blind Bay and I sent back a pic and said that I fixed it

I’m heading off to bed now and I’m feeling quite blessed by the entire experiences of the last four months and I’m now ready just to focus on the upcoming things that I have in my life, including Gran Fondo, Edfest and blood relations.

September 6, 2026

At some time after 4 am I began having a nightmare that the carbon monoxide detector was going off and everyone was running around d panicking. I realized there really was beeping happening and got up to find my weather station in the living room had a dead battery and I ripped it out and went back to bed only to wake up 4 hours later. I lazed around, had a good soak and got some errands done before meeting the ladies at their hotel. We all piled in my car and went through the car wash together before heading to Kimberley

First stop was Marysville Falls.

Ext was Cominco Gardens which have changed so much since I was last there

We parked in the Platzl parking lot and visited My Best Friend’s Closet, a high end consignment store before wandering in and out of all the stores I. The Platzl. It was nice to run into Rosie, Kevin and Becky. we decided to have lunch at Stonefire. It was very good and the gals spoiled me by picking up the tab

I picked up three sweet bowls, a nose glass, an olive spoon and some enhanced bevies.

We stopped for pics with Happy Hans

We headed back to Cranbrook and stopped at Heidout for dessert where they all kicked in for a generous gift card for Rae and Roger for feeding g and caring for them. So kind and thoughtful. I dropped them at their hotel to get Julie’s car and met them at Rae’s where I loaded up Tracey’s fire pit and propane tank to return. They said their goodbyes and poor Rae headed to bed, exhausted.

We all came back to my place e and played several rounds of Flip 7 which I’d bought on Salt Spring

It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

I sent my walking sticks home with Sherry for her Dad, Wally. I was glad that she figured they would work well for him.

I am so very grateful that they came. We were able to catch up on each other’s lives and they supported me with all the love. I am blessed

September 6, 2026

I am pretty beat. I did make it for breakfast and was so happy to see so many people back. The pancakes and egg casseroles etc were fab. It was lovely when Chris and Brian Taggart showed up. We all ate and visited and the weather held out ok.

Most of us walked down to the Saturday market and I bought some corn and fruit. It was nice to spend casual time together . It was a treat to see Tom Bungay playing as well

Once back at the house we decided to head out to Fort Steele. The four of us girls, Uncle Bryan & Auntie Lynne, Sarah and Michael all went. We spent several hours exploring and although my body was hurting, it was a special time.

It is Bryan and Lynne’s 56th anniversary today and they all had dinner plans early at The Old Bauernhaus Restaurant in Kimberley. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Roger was cooking up spaghetti and chicken for the troops. He and Rae and their boys and besties have really gone out of their way to make a beautiful venue and kept everyone nourished.

We filled a row at the theatre for the 6:30 showing of The Odyssey. I was glad I had my loops in as it was loud, but I really enjoyed it in spite of its artist diversion from the book

The gals dropped me off and I packed up the rest of the collection. I did bring any metal and stone ones left for my garden and have 6 to send to Mom’s cousin in Bellevue. It was pretty great to turn two totes and 3 boxes into just two small boxes to go to the hospital auxiliary thrift

My car is full of things to deal with tomorrow and I look forward to no alarm in the morning. I hope to take the gals to Kimberley tomorrow and then just play games or do something chill.

The whole event has been awesome, good bye is hard, but it all feels more like see you again soon to the friends and family that came.

September 4, 2026

How do I explain the day that I put my mom’s ashes in the ground?

I woke up before my alarm with an incredible anxiety stomach issue going on

The day started with breakfast at the Guedes house and then I ran a couple errands and hung around as long as I could before heading off to the cemetery

There was so much in between that I can’t even supply all the details because it is so much of a blur at the moment but what I do know is I arrived at the cemetery to find out that Mom‘s marker was not there and I was instantly angry and crying and people were arriving from all parts of the province, cousins and aunts and uncles and mom’s friends and I was there crying because the monument company had not come through as promised. I managed to get through what I wanted to say and had Greg put the urn into the ground and then we all just stood around and talked for a while before heading to Rae-Anne and Rogers. I love some of the group cemetery photos that Lucas took with my phone.

Bill took these and I am grateful

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent at Rae-Anne and Rogers and was a complete blessing family photos were taken by Brian Clarkson, food was supplied by the Heid-out and music by Dave Prinn

I encouraged everyone to take a cat and a carnation and give them to random strangers. My heart melted when Sawyer and Emmy went door-to-door on the block and handed coronations to people who answer their doors in honour of their GG

There are no words to express how grateful I am to everyone who came everyone who honoured Mom and honestly my ability to get through it all when Dave started singing hallelujah I started to lose myself and cross the yard quickly to be hugged by Monica as the two of us were holding mom‘s hand while that song was playing and she passed

I am sad that some people have to leave right away tomorrow but so grateful for who is there and I can’t wait to see the group photos all in all. I know that mom would be happy with what I made happen for her.

One of the things in the morning was having a conversation with Greg and Kym while Jake and others were there saying that I was going to contest the will. my pain comes from things being held back and surprises so I didn’t want any for them and it came up naturally in conversation, so the ice has been broken, and I am going to carry forward

September 3, 2026

Brett was my guest at Rotary Lunch and the speaker was Keith Powell with support from Rae-Anne about all things CAMAL

I ran a bunch of errands including making a handout for the gathering and met Dave Prinn to confirm details for music. I came home and tidied my house before loading up my car and heading to Rae’s. The set up turned out perfect and the main table is full of cats and things that we hope people will take

I also set up a lovely display for Mrs B but forgot to take a picture. It was wonderful when everyone started arriving. Roger made us an incredible dinner with the assistance of Will and Simon. I truly cried when Sherry, Julie and Sue arrived There is nothing better for the soul than your besties from high school arriving to support you.

The ladies came to my place after and we sorted through Mom’s jewellery. It was fun and great conversations ensued. Julie gifted us with heat bags which may indicate what age we are!!

My cup is full and I look forward to tomorrow

One of the lovely parts of the day was an interaction with Ethan Askey, a musician friend who lives across the street from the event. He loaned us his propane fire table and have Tae and I a beautiful condolence card. He’s good people.

September 2, 2026

Today I worked my tush off in between appointmentsso that I wouldn’t have to go into the office again until Tuesday

I started the morning at the dentist, getting drilled out and prepped for my crown to replace the broken off one from years ago that I have not dealt with

At three, I was off to see Minh for a manicure and while I was there, I decided to have a pedicure as well because my back was hurting, and the massage chairs did the trick.

I stopped for a bite to eat and then it was off to rehearsal from 6:30 to 9:30. I admit, I am not especially happy with some of the choices that are being made for my costume, but they are to be discussed another time. I feel that the director is happy with the choices that I am making for my character, and I am glad to finally be on our feet and blocking because that I find helps me learn the lines the fastest.

Unfortunately, in a very short time, we have already lost two people in the cast and hope that this is it.

Jake Yumi and Emmy arrive tonight and I will see them tomorrow after Rotary. I have invited Brett as my guest because he is a potential member and I also hope to find more volunteers as two of them. I’ve dropped out for my parking crew at Gran Fondo

I do feel like I have a lot of balls in the air right now, but lists are helping me get through. I look forward to seeing my girlfriends arrive tomorrow and we’ll probably have to spend some time tidying my house although I know they won’t care, I will.

September 1, 2026

Work, work, work

Dinner out visiting with Bejea and Elicia followed by rehearsal at 8:30 fun texts following

Managed to get the Temporary food Permit for EdFest and make lists for Gran Fondo and the gathering. Overwhelming amount of lists happening

August 31, 2026

Today the world feels heavy what with all the bickering due to Trump deciding that Lake Ontario should be called Lake America and all the controversy that has caused, and the far more serious event of a glacier letting go in Nepal and the numbers of dead are nearing 1000.

I know it’s a little bit like being an ostrich, but I am choosing to focus on the very simple, joyful things in my immediate life. I receive the menu for Mom’s gathering today and is absolutely fantastic., confirmation that Kyle is coming with greg and family so now all of us will be together for the first time, my friend Julie has managed to find candy striped carnations for me, the weather is supposed to be better on Friday than expected, and the fire band was rescinded so we can even have a fire for people to settle around in the yard

It was a very busy workday, but I accomplished much, including rallying my team for the Gran Fondo parking crew. I hope to hear from them all soon with a positive response. Now, I just have to buckle down and organize the food for the hospitality at Ed Fest. There’s just so much going on at the same time that I was glad that I was not needed to give a talk at the Rotary assembly at the beginning of October. I need to concentrate on learning my lines and being the best Abigail Borden I can be. Tomorrow is our first full on rehearsal and I am looking forward to it.

August 30, 2026

I woke up at a decent time and lay in bed listening to world news when I suddenly leapt up remembering that I had to call the Safeway florist. I got the idea that I want candy stripe carnations for the gathering.

Can’t get them here now in time so I reached out to Julie who is checking with her connections at the coast.

I spent the day pouring through the boxes of Donna’s that I brought home. There are some beautiful pictures I will put out as well. I want to honour her and I know Mom would approve.

At 4 pm today I joined other Rotarians for pizza and bocce. The weather s definitely cooler but it was a nice time. My team was Sven, Norm and Robin. We lost the first round and won the second

Home again I finished sorting and have a decent amount to present. I also have a whole box for Greg which holds a lot of Bellavance Welding history

There was a sage brush in our road!

I hung the sculpture that Me. and Mrs B. had on the wall in their cabin that I fell in love with at 13 and I just love it there

August 29, 2026

I managed to sleep in for a change. I measured and weighed myself and started my new meds. People equate addiction with drugs as a rule, but it can be many things. I am working to control mine, but I need some assistance. The events and losses of 2026 do not help

Rae picked me up at noon and we headed out to Ft Steele so she could take pics for marketing. The special preview of the residential school display was well done. Disturbing, just as it should be.

We had a shared lunch and wandered some of the buildings before heading out just as a rain started.

Once home, I grabbed my car and headed to the office. I managed to get all my filings done so that I can concentrate on payroll on Monday

I also got Chat GPT to help me come up with a good schedule for the gathering. I then popped over to Safeway to find when the florist will be there as they may have waited too long to get the exact flowers I want.

Mom’s cat is busy in the wind

August 28, 2026

This morning was predominantly spent at the bank of Montreal trying to cancel mom’s credit card. I ended up with an amazing teller who scanned the death certificate and the Will and took the card and then sat on the phone until she even finally got through so that we could make it happen. Who knew that would be the hardest thing to do.

I stayed at work until 645 when I realized if I didn’t hurry, I was going to miss the pharmacy which closed at seven. I did make it in time to get my prescriptions which was good and then I stopped to drop something off for Roger and Rae and they were just about to sit down to dinner and invited me to stay for an incredible meal that Roger had made of tender little venison steaks and truffle fries and I don’t know what kind of melted cheese and baguettes it was but I was so grateful to have enjoyed it all.

Next step was a meeting at 8 o’clock at fire hall with JCI. I love being involved with them in spite of the fact that they are a club that age is out at 40. Derek, Shane, Kars and I worked through the logistics of the Santa parade. They are a smart group of young men and I enjoy planning things with them and I’m grateful that they see my input as valuable.

While I was walking back to the park, I noticed that the new fence and lighting is coming along around the Cenotaph. It is beautiful and doesn’t look like it will be too distracting to events in the park.

Today has been strange as I consider all the losses in my personal life of late, including Mrs. B, Mom, auntie Pat, her son, Don, and my friend Marie from Shearwater.

Add on top of that the greater losses in the world of people that I admired very much or brought joy to my life, including Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus prime and my oh so favourite Eyore.

One can end up, swallowed by grief, but I find myself sometimes very edgy, sometimes emotional at the silliest things but mostly just grateful that I have had the experience of all of them in my lifetime.

One of the greatest conversations I had today was with Brian Clarkson, who was so gentle and kind and apologized for not knowing about me losing my mom and he asked after my daughter Ashlée and Bill who he calls Willie and he would be very grateful to come and take photos at mom‘s gathering and all he asked was that we make a donation to the Kimberly Cranbrook hospice society. That is right in line with all of my values and I was very happy and grateful for his gesture 

I love the small town connections that I have managed to gain in this city in the decade that I have been here

August 28, 2026

I didn’t really want to get up this morning as I had a tough time sleeping again, but I was glad to be in my own bed

I got a lot accomplished at the office before heading to Rotary lunch where Shawn Penner told us about the basketball association that he has here in Cranbrook. It was very cool.

I was happily surprised to receive my Paul Harris plus one pin today at Rotary.

I work the afternoon away until seven when I got a text from Brett that he and his daughter were down at Summer. Sounds so I decided to stop working and join them. It is fairly smoky out, but I was able to handle it and did enjoy Miesha and the spanks.

While I was there sitting with Brett and Dave Morley, I mentioned that I was hoping to find a photographer for Mom’s gathering so that my daughter Ashlée didn’t have to do it and Dave said you should ask that guy that used to have Cranbrook photo.

I got home and messaged Brian Clarkson, an amazing photographer in town and he said he would love to do it and is going to reach out to me tomorrow

I got home at the same time as Tracy and her sister and they invited me over to sit on the deck and visit under the full moon eclipse. We had a wonderful visit but now it is very late and I need to go to bed!