Erin's Journals

Where did it go? Almost two weeks have flown by and here we are, getting set to turn in our rental car here in Ottawa and head home. It’s not a direct flight to Victoria (there isn’t one) but WestJet will have us connecting in Calgary this evening before we hopefully land just before midnight at YYJ. 
 
It will be hard saying goodbye after another full, wonderful day with our little Colin. We know we’re coming back in November for two events that I’m hosting, but that seems a long time away. The Coopers already have us booked into their place for another visit! It is several months, but they’re summer months. The best months. The fastest months. And one day we hope a little boy will make his way west for a few of them – or at least we can dream!
 
Brooke and I had the best day on Friday spent in a spa doing “girl” things. Things I would love to do with Lauren when she had the time, which was rare once she started working. How lucky I was that Brooke was able to carve out a few hours between her job and her other full-time occupation of caring for Colin and Phil.
 
And COLIN! Last time we saw him in person he was bright-eyed and busy with his painting and art work, but not talking much at all. This time, we were keeping up full conversations with him. Two years ago, from the hotel room downtown where the boys were holed up awaiting house repairs after a flood, we had Colin doing a raspberry to the Boston Bruins during their playoffs with the Leafs. Now he can practically trash talk them as well as we can!
 
Oh, goodness, this trip has been amazing. To be able to begin it with a party for Rob at which some of the guests were a surprise (like Mike and Debbie and our promo goddess Jackie Gilgannon) and wrap it up with yesterday’s big Canadian Real Estate Association summit at the Westin Ottawa has been fulfilling on so many levels. The best parts, of course, have been time with close friends and family.
 
It all comes down to finding the things that make your heart sing – the reasons to keep looking up instead of (despite my searches for dimes) just concentrating on the few feet of road ahead. I am reminded of something I read on a picture I saw of Elvis Presley at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas a while back and it had to do with the three things you need in order to be happy:
 
Someone to love,
Something to do,
Something to look forward to.
 
Check, check and check.
 
I’ll be back with you here tomorrow with a journal sure to take us all down memory lane.
 

Friday already! Monday, we’ll be on a plane heading home, but not before lots more Coco time (he’s home from school today) and a special national event being held here in Ottawa that I’m hosting for the Canadian Real Estate Association on Sunday. What a wonderful collaboration this has been over the past year, me and CREA, and I can only hope that the rest of this year, and maybe even years to come, bring more of these sorts of partnerships. 
 
Speaking of partnerships, I am grateful to you who wrote to me yesterday about Mike and me, and specifically asked about Debbie Cooper. Debbie, as you know, was diagnosed with colon cancer about six years ago. When you see her, you would never, ever know the battle she’s waging; she’s positive, beautiful, positively beautiful and just – as she and Mike would say – “rockin’.” And it’s the truth. She juices, she takes incredible care of herself and she and Mike are a force of nature in the face of this disease.
 
They’re in great hands and they want to thank you for your prayers and your kindness, always. And yes, Debbie is going to be on that river cruise Mike and I are hosting next April. As a matter of fact, I have a link here to the webinar – Mike and I chat, along with your hosts Neil Dudley and from New Wave Travel, our good friend Gerry Koolhof. Even if you’re not interested or can’t join us, please do give it a listen this weekend. You’ll enjoy the ride! Here’s the link.
 
So, that’s your update on Debbie. We so love being together. She and I had a wonderful reiki and numerology session in Lakefield (near their home) and then dinner at a lovely little French bistro in town called Cassis. We came home, got in our jammie-jams and just sat in front of a fire sipping tea and talking about our angels, our husbands and the strength you find when you need it – when you have no other choice.
 
As for our boys? They were off before sunrise Tuesday to Casino Rama to play for the day, have a great dinner and sleep over at the hotel. They returned home Wednesday morning hoarse from laughing and talking and it did them both a world of good. Rob needs that fun in his life (the numerologist even said so LOL) and he even came out ahead – as did Mike. Yes, you could say they both did, in more ways than one.
 
Today I get to spend some quality time here in Ottawa with Brooke, the young woman who has so selflessly devoted her life to our boys and is doing a wonderful job with Phil in teaching Colin his pleases, thank yous, letters, numbers and so much more. She has slid into a role that would be a challenge to anyone, and she’s doing just beautifully – even with every germ and sickness that Colin has brought home from school this year! Goodness, we’ll just hope to stay healthy before this Sunday’s CREA event! 
 
By the way, I know from your notes and FB posts that you may be expecting pictures of Coco and I am not able to promise any. All parents have their rules for social media and their children, and we are going to play by the ones that are laid out for us. Thank you for understanding!
 
In the meantime, take it easy this weekend and please do feel free to join us for the Tulip Time webinar you found linked above. We’ll be talking to you here next week and I’m so glad you’ve continued to let us keep you company along the way. 
 

I’m writing this as we make our way towards Ottawa; grey skies and temperatures in the low single digits make us wonder – as I’m sure that you do – whether spring, now in its third official week, is ever going to make an entrance. Familiar voices on our car radio warn of possible freezing rain this weekend (so the DVP spring clean-up closure is cancelled) and we shake our heads. Just let us spend time with our dear boy Colin and his parents. That’s all we ask of the gods these days!
 
I’ve got to tell you: it was a wonderful two days spent in the loving and welcoming arms of Mike and Debbie Cooper. We laugh so much together and get caught up with news of the radio station where, of course, Mike still dominates Saturday nights in the ratings with his classics show. My posting of a picture on Facebook of Mike and me the other day inadvertently sparked a torrent of comments about missing us and, as lovely as they are to read, that’s truly the last thing I want to do.
 
I’ll always feel a great debt to CHFI and a tremendous amount of loyalty to the people who work there. I want everyone to know just how awesome Maureen Holloway is, how deftly she handles the dance steps, and how loved Ian and Gord will always be to me. Everyone there is like family. And if you haven’t listened to CHFI lately, I would love for you to give it a try once again. It’s good to come home, as we’ve found this week.
 
I’m sure that it was on CHFI that my friend Robina, who had it nice and loud in her kitchen when we were there Friday and Monday, learned about Jersey Day in Toronto today. If you’re not caught up, here’s the Mayor’s Proclamation:
 

 
Robina and her family have little dolls outside their house in a downtown neighbourhood and when we were there, they were festooned in a Hudson’s Bay scarf and sweater. Here’s how they look today, along with sticks left out in solidarity with other Canadians for the families and players in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. And please remember the gofundme collection as the community begins its long, long road towards healing. Thank you. 
 

  
Have a blessed day.
 

Thank you for sharing with us these two weeks here in Ontario. I have to tell you that I am awash in a mixture of emotions, but not one of them is regret about the decision we made to leave. It’s not you; it’s us. We have met up with so many friends since we got here last week and every one of them has reminded us of the heart connections that we made along the way. But without Lauren here, this can never truly be home again.
 
And so, as we point our car towards Rob’s sister’s in Kingston today and on to Ottawa tomorrow, truly the emotional high point of our trip and our year, we remind ourselves that home is where the heart is – not a postal code and not even where the memories have been forged. It’s where we continue to write the next pages in our life’s story.
 
Yes, we miss you. That is certainly the truth and seeing friends like Helen, Robina and Lisa, Mike and Debbie, Allan and Betty, Ian and Anita, Michelle, Jackie, Rob’s hockey buddies, my niece and a new friend name Lu, we are reminded of how important it is to make this trip back to Ontario with regularity. And to take our time when we’re here so that we can try to see as many friends as we can. Obviously it’s not always possible to fit everyone in that we want to and who would hope we would, but for those who might be upset with us, we say, “Hopefully next time.” 
 
I have read carefully the advice, the opinions and the wisdom you shared on my Facebook public page or through emails, when I asked what you thought of the title of our upcoming book. Here’s the story of how last Thursday went.
 
We awoke on that morning at the Hilton Markham Suites. After a visit with some friends in Newmarket, we made our way downtown and parked at our friend Robina’s place. Then Rob and I started out from Bay and Bloor, determined to get in 10,000 steps after a day sitting parked in a plane, despite Toronto’s brisk winds and pelting flurries. We got to the Bay-Adelaide Centre and soon found ourselves in the brand new lobby of HarperCollins’ headquarters on the 41st floor. Talk about a room – an entire company – with a view: we could practically track weather systems!
 

 
We were welcomed with an electronic wall sign that included my and Rob’s names, as well as that of our literary agent, Michael Levine. As we sat with Iris Tupholme, SVP, Executive Publisher at HC (and my guiding angel and editor through this whole project), as well as the marketing, sales and design team for my book, I told them that whoever had put together this entire prank had done an incredible job! It was a true “pinch me” moment. 
 
Best of all, when Iris said, “We should talk about the title of the book,” everyone had seen your comments and the decision was an easy one. I stated, to the agreement of all, how much I loved that the future readers of this book – the people who have been with us every step of this story – were taking ownership of its title. And with respect to everyone who offered another title idea or chose the other option suggested, I say “thank you.”
 
We will be going with the ‘u’ in Mourning Has Broken. It was our first and strong favourite: the double meaning of mourning/morning as it pertains to sadness, to hope and even to the life we had and still have, thanks to the honour of doing morning radio; the suggestion that sadness can end – for however long – that we trust is a message of hope. Mourning Has Broken, it will be. And again, I am grateful to you for sharing your own thoughts.
 

Today I salute a man who has traveled to every remote corner of this expansive, impressive land of ours, as he gets set to wave good-bye, at least for now. Although, for Rob and me, our travels have brought us this week back to beautiful Ontario – relentless winter and all – these past few days spent on highways and back roads, I’ve been thinking more about the province of Saskatchewan than I think I ever have. And my heart, like those of so many millions of Canadians, is broken for the friends, family and fans of the Humboldt Broncos, who suffered such an incredible disaster last Friday.
 
Imagine the pain of the family who learned that their son, previously believed to have survived, had died, the cautious elation of the family who learned their precious son had not perished, and the deep devastation of such grievous injuries that the confusion was even possible to begin with.
 
There will never be words – as there never are – that can sum up the magnitude of the loss of promise that Friday night’s horrors stole from us all, but especially from those who knew and loved the accident’s victims best.
 
Our hearts are with theirs and I am reminded by one of our journal’s visitors (and a bereaved mom who’s contributing to my book) of the acronym HOPE: Hold On, Pain Ends. It does, at least, for a time. It never truly disappears, but there are moments when life feels normal again, however briefly. You’ll find yourself smiling when you remember that dear person who has left far, far too soon. And we are so sorry.
 
One more note of gratitude before I sign off for today and it is to a man I’m fortunate to be able to call, if not a friend exactly, a very friendly acquaintance. Tonight CBC television will air a special hour-long Rick Mercer Report, including his final rant. He guesses some 40+ kilometres have been racked up walking that alleyway as he shared what was on his mind and in his heart over all of these years. As Rick moves on after a fantastic 15-season run on the CBC, I can’t help but thank him for being a voice of Canadians for all of those years.
 
He made us laugh, he made us think, and some of us he made downright angry. But always, he came from a place of passion and deep love for this country. I wish I could have said this to him in person: the mornings he came into our CHFI studios were among the favourites of my entire career. We sparked off each other (or I’d like to think we did) and I loved the exchange of laughter and ideas that always took place when Rick sat down across from us. Plus, I was just a little star struck every time he came in. A sharp mind and a big heart are what I look for – whether in a friend or an idol.
 
Thank you, Rick, and whatever you decide to do, we’ll be there with you and we wish you every success. In life, in love and most of all, in Canada. Thank you for sharing so much of this wonderful country with us all. May you be happy. 
 
By the way, next Tuesday, since you’ll be without a new Rick Mercer Report on CBC, I’ll share with you a favourite from the Erin & Mike files with Mr. Mercer himself. A “best-of” if ever there was one! Take care.