Life........and Death

My uncle, Theo, who was also my Greek best man at my wedding, past away while I was in Calgary. He is the man at the head of the table, this was our family Christmas picture of 2006.
He was diagnosed with cancer in October and was given 2 months. When that didn't happen, it was understood that he wouldn't make it to Christmas.....see pic above.
I would go to Montreal and see him at least every two weeks but I would call every 3 days or so. A week before I left to Israel, I saw him and he was fully coherent and still joking around even though he was in palliative care at the Montreal General Hospital. When I saw him this past weekend before I left for Calgary, he was not doing well, and the priest attending his bedside was also not a good indicator.
When I got off the plane, I fully expected a message on my cell phone but there was none, only to get a call from my wife just as I sat in the taxi cab, with the bad news.
He was a good man but is now free to join his wife again, who also passed from cancer 10 years ago. He will be sorely missed.
It is really something to see a human life form be transformed right before your very eyes........and I am glad that he did not suffer long. He passed with my cousin, his daughter, right by his side.
One day, we will meet again......I will miss you Theo.....rest in peace.
Peace to all.

Touch of alzheimers....

Okay, so I go to Calgary, to the Oval, to try out my new skates and what did I forget???????.....my camera of course!!
Not sure if I mentionned it before but there is already a Greek guy doing long track and his name is Chris so this trip gave me the opportunity to meet with him.
Chris works at the Oval so that is where I met him. He will be representing Greece next season and hopefully, the season after that, I will join him.
I put on my skates, unfortunately it is a public skate and man does it fill up so it is hard to do anything special like....pick up speed, but my skates were very skittish so Chris offered to sharpen them for me and that made a bit of a difference.
At the end of the public skate, Chris told me that there was a club skate and that maybe I should stick around and get to skate on some fresh ice with more room so I did and I finally got to pick up some speed and actually was fast enough to do cross-overs in the corners heh heh. I am proud to say, that even with my volleyball knee pads on my elbows (hidden of course), I did not fall once so I was pretty stoked about that.
Another thing that got me going is that I met a guy named Joel before the public skate (man is he lightning fast), who is on podium program trying to make the 2010 Games representing Canada, and was glad to hear that he also was a hockey player and only started speed skating this past July so in just 6 months, he has blasted off, so that has got me thinking.....mind you, I do believe he may be an exception cause it looks like he is naturally suited for this sport, none the less, I have 3 more years to get it right.
Anyways, Chris gave me some pointers that I will bring to the Ottawa Oval and practice.
I am more confident after this trip and am looking forward to streamlining my training now. Stay tuned.....
Peace.

Undescribable experience....

I recently had the glorious opportunity to travel to Israel......words cannot really express the feelings and emotions one experiences of being part of such history.
Even though my time was short, I had the blessings to travel and see Jerusalem, the Old City, the Via Delaroso where Jesus walked with the cross, the Holy Seplucre, the tomb of Jesus, the crucifixtion of Jesus, where Jesus was cleaned afterwards, the tomb of Virgin Mary, the tomb of King David, the exact location of the Last Supper (pic with me standing alone),the Western Wall, Mount of Olives, Mount Zion, Bethlehem, the Church of Navitivity where Jesus was born (picture with my hand on the silver star), and I just had to check out the Dead Sea (pic with Jordan in the background).....an amazing experience!!
I was truly curious about the Dead Sea cause I don't float but the hearsay became fact as everyone floats....you don't even have to know how to swim....you can't sink. My only mistake, and as humans, we always learn through experience, is that as I waded out waist deep in the water and I dove in like I usually do at any beach although this is not 'any' beach......I couldn't really open my eyes for about 5 minutes as it felt like I got a blast of pepper spray in my face and mouth.....at least I created a memory for the others as they laughed at me heh heh.
All in all, I was very struck with this experience and very surprised to see how the Greeks were everywhere in this history....I did not know their role in this history was so huge.......it kind of gave me more motivation for my new found quest.
This week, I will get a chance to try out my skates.....motivation is good but hope is another thing heh heh.
Peace to all.