What a Canada Day

Happy Canada Day for all of you out there in Canada. Hope you had a lovely day, or are having, I suppose. We spent the afternoon at a friend's house, playing board games. Unfortunately, their deck is under construction, so no hanging out by the pool. We came home, had a bit to eat and are just kind of relaxing and hanging out. We decided NOT to tackle the crowds downtown trying to get near the royal couple. Me plus half a million of my closest friends? Not so much. I thought about going to see the fireworks, but due to security stuff, eh.

That's on the up-side. This morning I woke to find a message from a friend of mine in Chicago. Her teen (18 or 19 I think) step-son was "car surfing" and flew off the car and has a traumatic head injury. His pupils are no longer responding and they are waiting for another CAT scan tomorrow to see if there is any development, but it does not look positive. So very sad and so very preventable. The stupidity of youth, and now his family tries to cope.

When we got home from my friends' house, there were more messages about an odd post on a friend's FP page. It implied she had died, and after some digging, we found it's true. We are trying to find out the details, but there are conflicting reports from a heart attack in the night, to throwing up and aspirating on vomit and dying. Either way it's awful. She suffered from depression and had pulled away from us in recent months, but we never dreamed it would end as it has. She has three young daughters, in age from about 9-13. A couple of friends in California are going to try and go to the service this week. Maybe we'll find out more, but I was just shocked. She was only 44. Far too young to not be with us anymore.

So there is my weird Canada Day. Ups and downs. Although I never met Ilka, we've known each other on-line for nearly 8 years, and I watched her kid's grow. I got the chance to meet Jenn last summer, and I am looking forward to seeing her in Chicago again this summer, I just never dreamed the kind of hugs we'd have to share would be over such a family tragedy.

So it would be great if you could send mojo, prayers, positive thoughts, whatever works for you, to Ilka's girls who are going to grow up without a Mom, and to Jenn and her step-son Austin, for the best possible outcome, whatever that may be.