Thursday, January 19, 2012

Last But Not Least




This is my last blog entry in this particular blog.
Not just because I turned 41 today and the title would seem pretty odd from here on in.
But because I've completed most of my resolutions and I'm starting a new year.
But most of all because of how this year started.
So after a nice Christmas with family and little snow in TO, we did go to Hawaii as planned and stayed on the island of Oahu at the awesome Aulani Disney Resort.  It just opened in October so of course everything was brand-spanking new and the help was eager to please, from the valets to the check-in people to the concierge to the wait staff.  I think any one of them would have ran and got a tissue for my runny nose if I'd asked them.

And of course, in Disney style, it was suited to adults and kids at the same time - classy looks, romantic ambiance, but with three heated outdoor pools, water tubing down a slide, and a drifting "stream" from the slide that took you on a 10-minute ride around the grounds.  Not to mention the mandatory Disney character walking around every so often for photos. 
My son challenging Mickey
to an ear-fight.
All in all it was a glorious week, escaping the cold to lie on beaches, swim in warm water, and eat in nice restaurants, all thanks to Children's Wish. 

The only real drag was that my wife's supervisor wouldn't give her the day off to fly out with us (WTF?) so we actually had to buy my wife a separate plane ticket out of pocket, which meant that she forfeited the return ticket and we had to buy one of those too.  Which then meant that Daddy had the three kids for 12 hours of plane travel to and from Honolulu.  No wonder I ended up with a head cold coming back.


So we got back two Saturdays ago, unpacked a little, overslept on the Monday but dragged ourselves into school and work.

And then the unthinkable happened.

Just before noon, I got a call on my cell from my wife's stepmother that my wife's father had gone under while swimming in the pool that morning.  They think it was a heart attack.  They tried CPR for over an hour and couldn't revive him.  It doesn't look good.

We picked up the kids and drove out to Montreal that afternoon, but Peter was already fading fast.  Very few signs of brain activity.  The machines were keeping him alive.  After a couple of agonizing days, after his third son arrived from South Africa to say goodbye, we all said goodbye to Dr. Peter Gruner, my father-in-law and a pretty great guy.


I'll leave the tributes to his blog: http://rememberingpeter.tumblr.com/.

But Peter's death did leave a mark, and I hope to carry his compassion for others in me the rest of my waking days.  Oh, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation fundraising this year is for him.  God, I hope I stop having people to dedicate my fundraising to.

And then pulling all of that somewhat together, my wife and I just came back from seeing "The Descendants", since it was praised at the awards and set in Hawaii.  This despite the fact that I'm not a Clooney fan, except for the Oceans-style movies which I think is about all he's good for.  Little did we know that this movie explored death in many of the same ways we just had.  What a great, bizarre, fitting way to bring me to a point of ending the blog.  Damn you, George Clooney.

Way too much footage of Clooney running and his face trying to carry a scene,
but a touching story nonetheless and way too relevant for me right now.


So I know my followers and readers haven't been many, but if you've read any of my postings, Mahalo.
Ending with a "report card" on myself would seem trite, and I accomplished almost all of what I wanted to in my 40th year. 
Now it's time to reinvent myself again in my 41st.  Aloha.