Visiting Family

These past weekends I have been able to include visiting with family. Though my visit were short it was still great spending time with them. Last weekend I was in Thunder Bay where my parents live. Yesterday I went to Oshawa to have dinner with my brother Bruce and his wife Kristin. I was able to get a tour of their new home - Kristin is very creative so she has an eye for the colours and Bruce's choice with the wood accents - a great combination of both. Bruce teaching Special Education students at his highschool and years ago he started the Lunch Buddies program - it started with 2 students and yearly it is now up to 150 students - caring for each other looking beyond people's disabilities or limitations - a small model of breaking down discrimination among teenagers. On Friday, one of Bruce's students unexpectedly passed away from his disease. Peter was a part of Bruce's Special Ed program for the last 3 years and he made connections with his classmates. After supper, listening to Bruce speak to Peter's parents who wish in lieu of flowers donations be made to the school, that one of his idea's of planting a tree and have a small bench near the window of Peter's classroom. Wow - a proud sister moment for sure. A great way to end my day.

This afternoon, I walked down to the Eaton Centre and met up with my Aunt Susie. It has been a few years as well since I had last seen my aunt. Just like when I was living in Toronto going to College - we had lunch at the Pickle Barrell (we met there for my birthdays). We caught up with each other over our Montreal smoked meat - it was lean and thinly shaved - it was soooo good, especially on the rye bread (like old times during visits to Montreal when I was a kid).