History

Sunday, February 3, 2013 11:20 PM EST

Just a few thoughts to share today.

We often wrote about our daily routine at the hospital in Hannah’s journal. She seemed to keep us busy. Today we took it easy. It doesn’t happen often. Well, maybe not entirely easy. While I took the tractor down to the church this morning to plow snow, Cathy put the finishing touches on a couple dishes for the potluck lunch. After the service Cathy and the ladies served the lunch and I took the minutes for the annual meeting.

After church I picked up Mom and took her to see my Dad at the long-term-care home. He had a fall in April and spent the summer in the hospital. Now he is living at Marshall Gowland Manor in Sarnia. He seems to like it there, but he wishes he was still home on the farm. Dad was feeling good today, and we had a coffee and a nice visit. While we were there, a nice red cardinal landed in the tree outside his room.

Tonight Cathy cooked a delicious chicken dinner and we settled in to watch the Superbowl. When the power went out, it seemed like a good time to update this website.

2012 was a pretty good year for our family. Cathy made her last follow-up visit to see her Oncologist in London. She is now almost 6 years past her cancer treatment. Thankfully Cathy’s mom is still enjoying good health, and lives independently in Baden. On the farm we had our best corn & soybean crops ever. Cathy’s garden was productive, and we are still enjoying our potatoes and squash.

Cathy is keeping busy planning for a winter vacation, and I’m cutting fire wood whenever the weather co-operates. We’ve had a nice winter so far. The temperatures have been fairly cold but not much snow.

Well, the game is over and it is time for bed. It was 8 years ago that we kissed our little angel goodnight and goodbye. Hannah would now be 11 years old. We are often reminded of our little girl, and fondly remember the many good times we spent together in her 3 ½ years of life.

Thanks so much for remembering Hannah today.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012 8:50 AM EST

Happy Birthday Hannah. It is hard to believe you would be 11 years old today. We miss you very much!

Your Mom & I are doing really well. We keep busy with the farm and the garden. Grandpa Dan has been in the hospital for 3 months, so we visit him almost every day. We went to Bruce Beach with Grandma Shirley, Aunt Susan and Uncle Gord 2 weeks ago. We were reminded of you every day.

Thanks to all our friends who check in on us. Enjoy the summer!

Friday, February 3, 2012 8:19 AM EST

Today is a very special day. It was 7 years ago that Hannah earned her angel's wings. We think of her every day, and smile when we think about her great attitude towards life.

Often I think of myself as the father of a 3 1/2 year old, but Hannah would be 10 now. It is hard to believe!

We learned yesterday that our neighbour's daughter is spending some time recovering from surgery at Children's Hospital in London. We hope and pray that she will be home soon, and that her problems will be solved.

I've added a picture of Hannah from 2003. She came to visit me at work, and enjoyed being out to see her friends at Libro. We were home a fair bit then, and she had a chance to be a somewhat "normal" kid for a few months. Great memories!

Cathy and I have been enjoying a mild winter here in SW Ontario. Everybody is travelling south for a vacation, but I think we'll stay put this winter and plan for our many summer projects.

Thanks for stopping by and remembering Hannah!

Sunday, September 11, 2011 9:55 PM CDT

Hello. Yes, we are still here. Cathy’s health is great, so I don’t think much about updating the website. But we are glad to know that people are still checking in on us.

Today is quite a day for memories. I can’t help but think about Cathy calling me at work on the morning of September 11/01 to tell me about a plane crashing into the World Trade Centre. Later in the day we took Hannah to see the doctor in Strathroy for her 6 week checkup. Having a beautiful little baby made me think about all the turmoil in the world, and I wondered about what the future would hold for her.

If you’ve lost track, Hannah would be 10 this year.

That night, I remember visiting my parents at the farm, and noticing that there weren’t any exhaust trails from jets decorating the sky. It was clear and blue. Very strange…

Many things have changed. Cathy and I now live at the farm, and we are loving it. We have been here for a bit more than a year. My parents are getting along quite well in a senior’s residence in Sarnia. My dad had some health problems this summer on his 81st birthday, but he seems to be recovering better than we expected. Being in the hospital wasn’t a good place for him.

It has been a long time since the last update. We had a cool wet spring, which delayed our planting. But we have had a good summer with lots of heat and enough rain to bring the crops along nicely. These days we are struggling to keep up to the big garden Cathy planted while I was planting corn and soybeans.

Now we are thinking towards harvesting the crops. Our wheat crop was average yield, but prices are pretty good. We plan to visit the Plowing Match in Eastern Ontario near the end of September.

We spent one week at the cottage in June with Cathy’s family, and one week with my parents in August. We also made a couple weekend trips to visit with other members of the West family. Bayfest was really good this year, and we took in 4 concerts: The Steve Miller Band, The Tragically Hip, Montgomery Gentry & Trace Adkins, and Lady Antebellum. Overall it has been a great summer.

Cathy’s MP won in the federal election earlier this year so that should mean a bit more job security for Cathy for the next four years!

Well, it is time for me to go have a slice of fresh cantaloupe from the garden before bed. Thanks so much for visiting Hannah’s website.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 10:55 PM EST

Hello from snowy southwestern Ontario. I just came in from plowing some snow. The big blizzard didn’t hit us too hard last night, but the snow piles are getting higher as the winter goes on.

Sarnia had a much more severe snow storm in December, and we were snowed in at home for 2 days. Actually, it was the day after I did the last journal update. Our power was off for a few hours, but we were lucky that it came back before things got too cold.

We had some unexpected company during the snowstorm when 2 guys ended up in the ditch near our house. I found them and pulled them out with the tractor after they spent 9 hours waiting in their truck during the blinding snowstorm. Cathy did a great job feeding us all, while I tried to keep all the neighbourhood laneways cleaned out.

Many of you check on Hannah’s website on February 3rd, the anniversary of her passing. It was also a Thursday, 6 years ago. On that day we felt surrounded by the love of so many people, and we still feel that way today when people tell us they remember Hannah. We are very proud parents.

So far 2011 is going well for our family. We are thinking about traveling south, but no firm plans yet. We’ll try to update everybody when we make a decision.

Thanks for remembering Hannah on this special day!

Sunday, December 14, 2010 5:03 PM CST

Hello from snowy southwestern Ontario. Many areas east of here had a big storm last week, but we are getting our first snowfall of the year today. We have the snow tires on the car, the wood box full, and lots of food in the freezer. The problem is, the power is off…. Darn! It is supper time, but we can’t cook anything, so I decided to get the laptop out and update the website. We are way overdue.

We are living at the farm now, and our house in Camlachie closed early in November. We are happy that we don’t have to check the other house every day. Now we are busy getting this house organized.

It’s been a great fall. The crops were harvested in great time, and the fields were dry enough to do all the work we needed to do. Of course there is always things we’d like to do, but we’ll have to be patient.

Now that the work is done, it is time to celebrate. We have both had our “work” Christmas parties. We returned from London just before the weather turned bad last Saturday night. With all the snow we have now, we don’t want to do much traveling.

Speaking of traveling, we are trying to decide on a winter holiday. It is keeping Cathy busy surfing the travel websites for ideas. We don’t have any firm plans yet.

Cathy had an appointment with her oncologist in October, and got a good report. She only has to go for annual checkups with the oncologist now.

So we have a new address, phone number and email address now. We are a bit apprehensive about posting it here for all the world to see. If you would like it you can still send an email to our sympatico address below for a month or so yet. We are always happy to keep in touch with our friends.

Friday, September 17, 2010 9:30 PM EDT

Could it be that the summer is almost over??? We have enjoyed the warm weather but it has been very dry here. It seemed that in this area every rain that headed toward Sarnia just split and went around us.

John harvested his wheat in July and was pleased with the quality and price. He finished shipping the last of it out rather than storing it this year and after that planted some oats into the wheat stubble as a cover crop.

We started harvesting corn on September 11th this year and it was 20 percent moisture. That is the earliest we have ever harvested corn.

We had one week of holidays at the cottage in June with my family and spent a week with John’s folks in August. It is especially nice to have a break this year in the summer with the extra work preparing our house for sale.
The sign went up on our lawn in July and we sold our house this week. Apparently, it is a young couple who are very excited to live out this way and they love our house. (although the real estate agent can tell you anything!) We are keeping an eye on both houses until our sale closes so that will keep us busy for awhile.

John’s mom and dad have settled in well at their new apartment at Landmark Village in Sarnia. His dad celebrated his 80th birthday in June. I know that they would appreciate a phone call and they can be reached at the same phone number they had at the farm.

I had a bit of a health scare in July when my yearly mammogram showed something. I had another mammogram and an ultrasound and it turned out to be a false alarm. It’s always unsettling when something like that comes up. I’m approaching the five year mark after diagnosis.

We are looking forward to the International Plowing Match in St. Thomas next week and hope to see some of you there! It is always a good spot to catch up with friends. Overseas friends are especially welcome … we could meet you at the usual place at the Match!

Sunday, April 18, 2010 10:55 PM EDT

Welcome back to Hannah’s website. Spring has come, and we are knee deep in outdoor work. We were greeted early in March by a nice crop of crocuses growing in our back yard. Hannah and her Grandma Shirley planted some in the fall of 2003, and they continue to bring us an early spring treat.

We’ve been packing things up and preparing for our move. You might remember that Hannah spent a lot of time playing with her medical stuff. She was an excellent little nurse, and ran quite a clinic. She would check me and Cathy over every day, and then do medical work on her dolls. We accumulated a bunch of common medical items from the hospital…. Syringes, blood sample tubes, wipes, etc. We were sorting out the box with all her medical stuff, and found a little flashlight. Nurse Cheryl always carried a little flashlight around her neck, and it caught Hannah’s attention when she was very young. We bought her a little flashlight just like Nurse Cheryl’s. Anyway, we flicked it on, and it still worked. After more than 5 years packed away, Hannah’s little light was still shining! But I guess that is why you are still checking on her website.

Today we took some bags of Hannah’s clothes to donate to charity. As I packed them into the car, it brought back a lot of memories. Some days I can’t believe that I used to wash all these little pink and purple outfits, carrying them back and forth between the hospital and Ronald McDonald House. These clothes seem so small now, and I have a hard time remembering her as a tiny baby.

Speaking of small clothes, it must have something to do with our closets. I’ve been cleaning out my closet too, and lots of my old clothes just don’t fit me know. I can’t understand how they shrink as they hang in the closet?

What else is new? 3 weeks ago, we were in Arizona. We were very fortunate to stay with Uncle Paul and Aunt Heather for a week at Sedona. It was a great vacation! (I added one picture from our trip under the picture tab).

It is very dry here, and quite cool this weekend. The wheat could use a rain. We have had some nice warm days. I had to cut the grass today, and we are getting ready to plant corn when it warms up. Cathy has some new seeds, and she is looking forward to starting her garden. We hope you are all enjoying this exciting time of the year.

Sunday, March 21, 2010 10:15 PM EST

Hello Friends. Thanks for checking in on us. All is well here… we are healthy and keeping busy.

Last week we had beautiful warm spring weather. The birds are really singing, and the buds are appearing on the trees. Last weekend we took a drive to find some fresh maple syrup, but the sap run hasn’t been too good this year with the early spring. The weather turned a bit cooler this weekend. Actually, there is still ice on the lake out almost as far as we can see.

Hannah’s crocuses are starting to flower in our back yard. It’s always great to see them, and remember that Hannah planted them back in 2003.

My parents moved most of the stuff for their new apartment into Sarnia this week. We took some time off work to help, but the movers had everything done quickly. My folks haven’t actually started living in their new place yet. They still have a few things to take care of, and their new mattresses haven’t arrived yet. They will be moving into a new retirement home next to my office, so it will be very convenient for us to visit.

Cathy and I are organizing, packing and moving some things as we go along. She packs, and I move the boxes. We can’t get too excited about moving until Mom & Dad are ready to start staying in town.

We had some visitors at the farm this week. Some relatives from about 7 generations back tracked down Dad and came to meet us, and learn more about our common history. They were from Lanark County. Dad took them to some cemeteries in the area to look for more information. They were able to track the family tree and understand how we are connected. We learned that a family of Youngs and a family of Reids came over from Scotland and originally settled in Lanark. A Young married a Reid, and later the Youngs moved to Lambton County. So now we have some new Reid “cousins”, and they showed us pictures of their family farm back in Lanark.

On the farm, I’ve been shipping soybeans and corn. Our quality is good, but the prices were better last fall. The fields are almost dry enough to apply some nitrogen to the wheat. We’ll have to start thinking about spring planting in another month. We still have lots to do to prepare…. So I better get going. Welcome spring!

Sunday, March 7, 2010 9:20 PM EST

The weather was beautiful this weekend…. Lots of sunshine and warm temperatures! Cathy and I walked down to the lake this afternoon, but there is still ice out as far as we can see. I guess spring isn’t here quite yet.

Actually I was working outside yesterday in just my jeans and sweatshirt. I was fixing some broken farm equipment, so I was a bit hot under the collar. Even an unwelcome repair job didn’t prevent me from enjoying a nice day. We even cooked some steak on the barbeque last night.

We were packing up some pictures the other day, and I found this picture of Hannah enjoying a new toy. Actually it is a Christmas decoration that her grandparents brought her. There were some little figurines who skate around on a rink. Hannah thought it was pretty cool. I found this picture while they were broadcasting Olympic figure skating on TV, so it brought back some nice memories.

Anyway, we don’t have too much to report tonight. We are always happy when we find a picture we haven’t seen in awhile. Have a great week!

Sunday, February 28, 2010 9:47 PM EST

Good evening. We are watching the closing ceremonies for the Olympics tonight. It was a very exciting day here day, and we enjoyed the big win in men’s hockey. Days like today I wish Hannah was around to share the excitement. I think she would have had fun cheering after the big win. Hannah always appreciated special events, and had a great memory. We’d often discuss things that happened in the past and remember the good times we had our together with our family and friends. Anyway, we are very proud Canadians tonight.

Things are a bit more comfortable here tonight than the opening ceremonies. We had just come home from work and starting cooking supper. Cathy was really looking forward to watching it on TV. Just as things got started, our power went out. We hoped it would come back on quickly, but it wasn’t to be. Cathy was very disappointed that she couldn’t watch things on TV, so I went downstairs and carried up our backup power battery. We were able to plug in the TV and watch. I drove into Bright’s Grove and picked up a couple subs to replace our half cooked dinner. We lit a few candles, got out the extra blankets, and we were set for the night. Unfortunately the backup power ran out later in the night (after I fell asleep in the lazyboy), but we had a memorable evening. By the time our power came on it was long after midnight, so the house was getting pretty cold.

Hopefully we can get back into a normal routine now that the Olympics are over. Our sleep has been suffering over the last two weeks, and it has been hard to focus on anything we can’t do sitting in front of the TV.

We had a great time last weekend in Guelph at the AALP Dream Auction. We had dinner with some friends from Class 8, and bought a few things at the auction and stayed at a new hotel. It was really nice seeing our friends from all over Ontario.

Over the last week we’ve received a bit of snow after a very easy winter. We were late coming home after a long day at work on Monday. It must have been 8 pm, and Cathy hadn’t eaten her dinner yet. We just got the car backed in, and I was wondering how long it would take to shovel out the 6 inches of fresh, heavy snow. Just then a friend came driving by on his tractor, and plowed out the laneway. Good timing for us! Since then we’ve had a few more inches, so it feels a bit more like winter.

Mom & Dad have a date in mid March for moving into Sarnia, so we are getting closer to moving to the farm. Since they are only moving a few items of their furniture into the new apartment, we still have a lot of preparations before we are able to move.

I don’t have much else to say tonight. Thanks to all who remembered Hannah on Feb 3rd. We appreciate everyone who sent messages to us. We’ve had nice roses around all month, and we’ve been enjoying watching the colourful birds at our bird feeder. With such beauty around us, she never seems far away.

Wednesday, February 3 , 2010 1:40 EST

Hello Friends. Just a quick update to say Thanks to everyone who has dropped by or sent a message in memory of Hannah today.

It is hard to believe she has been gone for 5 years now. Of course we remember her everyday in so many ways.

Today we appreciate what a gift she was to Cathy and I, and of course our extended family. Hannah was the only Grandchild for both sets of grandparents. Despite her health challenges, we remember a lot of fun times.

Thanks again for remembering Hannah today! We'll be back another day with an update on our lives.

Saturday, January 9 , 2010 10:20 EST

Cathy is making a big pot of homemade soup tonight, and I’ve made 3 trips through the snow out to the compost bin with vegetable scraps. Even though it is a cold night here in Camlachie, it is worth the work knowing that we’ll have a nice bowl of soup for lunch tomorrow.

Last weekend we planned to travel to New Hamburg & Baden to see Cathy’s family. There was a lot of snow between here and there, so we didn’t want to take a chance on the driving. Maybe another weekend….

The snow arrived here midweek. If you read my last posting, yes, I put the blade on the big tractor with a cab. It was much nicer plowing snow at the farm this morning. We have two air cooled tractors that can’t be plugged in to warm up, so it was hard getting them started to do any other work. I’m trying to keep the laneway clear for loading trucks with corn. We have a couple loads to ship this month.

Cathy has been busy at work this week. One of her coworkers suffered a heart attach last weekend, so they were shorthanded all week. I went to Ridgetown on Wednesday and Thursday to the Southwest Ag Conference.

I really like the picture of Hannah above. It was right at the end of 2003, just before we went to Toronto for her bone marrow transplant. She was home most of the time, and having a lot of fun. Her attitude was excellent and she had lots to talk about. Hard to believe that was 6 years ago.

Thanks to everyone who mailed us a Christmas card, or who posted a message on the website. We are always pleased to hear from our friends again.

Friday, January 1, 2010 7:56 AM EST

Hello and Happy New Year! I’m up early this morning looking for something to do. I wish I was still sleeping in bed, but the internal alarm clock didn’t let me sleep past 7 am. It is a holiday today, so maybe I’ll catch a nap later. My thoughts turned to Hannah as I lay awake in bed, so it seemed appropriate to update her website.

We didn’t do anything too exciting last night…. just stayed home and watched some TV. It wasn’t too cold last night, so we took a nice walk around the neighbourhood. I was remembering driving home from a New Year’s Eve party at Sebringville 10 years ago, hoping that the world didn’t shut down for Y2K. I had to be back to my turkey farm by midnight in case anything went wrong. Somehow we all survived, and at the end of 2000 we celebrated another New Year’s Eve with our friends in St. Jacobs. Cathy was toasting with gingerale that night, because she was about 2 months pregnant with Hannah.

I also remember spending a few New Year’s at the hospital with Hannah. They didn’t usually have many patients over the holidays…. only the ones who really needed to be there. The nurses always kept things entertaining for everyone. God bless all of the staff at the hospital who took such good care of Hannah (and us!) over the years! ChildCan usually provided a potluck that night too.

Cathy’s health remains good, and she celebrated another birthday in December. She is already thinking about her 50th birthday party for next year. She is also thinking about traveling, and we are trying to plan a trip south later in the winter.

Cathy has been off between Christmas and now. She helped to organize events when the Olympic torch passed through Sarnia on Christmas Eve morning so that was exciting. On Christmas Day we loaded up the car and drove Mom & Dad up to Kincardine for a few days. There were 8 of us there for the weekend. We had a nice time visiting with my Aunts and Uncles, and enjoyed lots of great food.

The last few weeks have been a blur. Cathy’s office had a great Christmas party, and we were invited to the Shaw’s for a delicious home cooked dinner the other night. I’ve been trying to tidy up some year-end stuff for the farm, and of course there was Christmas shopping to do. Cathy wrote a bunch of Christmas cards, and did a great job of decorating the house. We are always pleased to receive cards from friends & family, and see pictures of their kids as they grow up.

So far this winter we have been avoiding the snow, and we haven’t had to shovel the driveway, but I don’t think that will last too long. I’m hoping to use my newer tractor with a cab to plow snow at the farm this winter. Last year I spend hours freezing on the open tractor, so I decided to make a big purchase. So far I only have the blade attached to the old small tractor, but if we get a good snowfall I’ll get the big tractor out.

Well, the coffee is ready, so I better get on to the next task. I’d like to say I have some resolutions to keep, but after a busy November and December I’m not feeling all that motivated. Let’s hope our friends and family find good health and happiness in January and throughout the rest of 2010.

Peace and Love,
John & Cathy

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 8:15 PM EST

We typed this message on Sunday, but we not able to upload because the power was off. Sorry for the delay.... J&C

Sunday Dec 6/09

How did December get here so quickly? Still no snow, and we are pleased that the weather has been so mild for so long.

We just got home from a trip to London and Baden, and we were settling in for a relaxing evening at home. Then our power went off. So now we are enjoying some candlelight and wondering what to do? Luckily the laptop battery is charged up. This surprise gives us a bit of time to update Hannah’s website, and listen to our hand crank radio.

We haven’t had many relaxing evenings lately. I finished harvesting corn last Saturday, but the drier needed to be supervised until Wednesday. We had wonderful weather all through November after a wet October. Every weekend we had good weather, and we would fill the corn drier with about 4000 bushels of wet corn. During the week I would keep an eye on the drier and get the dry corn moved to other bins or shipped out to prepare for the next batch. Both the soybeans and corn yields were beyond my expectations considering the late planting and cool summer.

This morning we were in London and dropped by the hospital. We had gathered a number of toys to donate to the hospital for the kids to enjoy. We were pleased to see 4 nurses who were a big part of Hannah’s care back 5 years ago. It was great to see some people who we knew, as there are a number of new nurses working there now.

What else is new? No much really…. Cathy had some unexpected excitement when she drove down to see her family a few weeks ago. It was a nice visit, but she got a flat tire on the way back. I drove up to Exeter to meet her and put a snow tire on her car to make a safer drive home. It would have been a long drive home on a little “donut” spare tire. I found her safe and sound at her cousin’s farm, so we had a delicious meal and a good visit before returning home.

On the same day, my Aunt Joyce & cousin Shelley stopped by the farm for a visit. I was able to give Shelley and her son Rowan a quick tour around the farm before leaving to rescue Cathy. It was great to see them all.

Other than that, we have stayed close to home. The corn drier needs to be checked 3 or 4 times a day when it is operating. We’ve done some more minor improvements to the house. Still no plan for moving, but we are working at sorting things out. We’ve been sending a lot of our extra stuff to good homes. It is hard to give away Hannah’s things, because they mean a lot to us but knowing that other families can use the toys and clothes makes us feel better. We have kept a number of things just waiting for the right time to pass them along and it has worked out well.

Still no power. Hmm…. I wonder how long until the sump pump needs to come on? It is getting a bit cool, as we had the thermostat turned down over the weekend, and the house hadn’t warmed up before the power went off. Thank goodness it isn’t storming outside. We hope everyone is doing well, and we hope you will send us an email or give us a call if we haven’t heard from you for awhile. Merry Christmas to all!

Sunday, October 25, 2009 9:39 PM EDT

Hello friends. We apologize for not updating sooner. Our computer went down on Thanksgiving weekend, but we are really happy to have it working again. We have a lot of emails and record keeping to work on.

With lots of work to do this fall, we didn’t miss the computer too much. Cathy has been sorting out stuff in our basement. We are trying to find a good home for some of Hannah’s toys. Mom and Dad are thinking about moving from the farm to a retirement home in Sarnia, so we’ve been trying to get our house ready to sell. We don’t have a date set yet, but we need to be prepared to make our move to the farm.

With the help of a friend, we finished the fall tillage on the farm this week. We started harvesting soybeans, but didn’t get very far before it started raining. Maybe we’ll get started again tomorrow.

Cathy worked over the Thanksgiving weekend at the Brigden fair. She had the Olympic torch prototype on display. Last weekend we went to Oktoberfest at Mannheim and saw lots of our friends. We had a great time! After we got back from KW we dug up the last potatoes and glads, and cleaned up the garden for the season. Cathy is looking for some garlic seed to plant.

Cathy just announced she is going to celebrate every month next year in anticipation of a big birthday next December. By the way, she had her semi-annual checkup with the oncologist in London on Friday, and got a good report. We celebrated with dinner out in Sarnia at a new restaurant.

I had a cold a few weeks ago, and took a sick day. I haven’t taken a sick day since 2002. Now that I’m feeling better, I need to donate blood this week. The Credit Unions in Lambton encourage their members to donate blood in the month of October. We also had our “Hannah’s Pumpkin Patch” fundraiser just before Thanksgiving and raised over $700 for the Children’s Health Foundation.

Life is good! Thanks for checking in.

Sunday, August 9, 2009 10:09 PM CDT

We are having quite a storm here tonight, so I’ll type this up while off-line. My dad just called from the farm, and their power is off. Cathy and I were watching the lightning out the window…. it is quite a sight.

Yesterday we had a nice rainy day. I was quite happy to have the rain as the crops were getting quite dry. Many people in other areas are complaining about wet conditions, but we hadn’t had rain for about 2 weeks. We finished harvesting the wheat on Wednesday. It was a good harvest… slightly above average, and thankfully good quality. Now the beans and corn will benefit from the rain.

Our neighbours weren’t hoping for rain yesterday. They were hosting a party featuring their daughter’s jazz band. Luckily they have a large garage for the band to set up, and they put on a great performance. We stayed out late visiting with neighbours around the bonfire. What a great night!

Today was the hottest day of the summer so far. Dad used to love working hard on hot days like today. We really haven’t had many hot days this year, so I pushed the lawn mower around for long enough to work up a good sweat and appreciate just how hot it was. Once the front lawn was done I decided it was a better day to do some cleaning inside the air conditioned house. Our A/C has been running full tilt all day.

You’ve likely noticed that we haven’t been updating as much lately. In the summer we find we have a lot of outdoor work to do, and of course lots of activities. Cathy has set up a Facebook site and is starting to use it a bit.

One of the great things about this website is we have documented a history of our time spent with Hannah while she was on treatment. Tonight I was reading back to August 2003. I wish I could share some cute story, but early August 2003 was likely the worst times I remember. Hannah had relapsed a few weeks earlier, and was very sick after a heavy dose of chemo. She ended up in critical care, and the doctor scared us terribly as he discussed her "grim" future. But Hannah pulled through, and we carried her up the stairs to the 7th floor during the great blackout on August 14, 2003. It was a very memorable day, and a huge victory for Hannah. Her recovery after that time was amazing.

We hope you are enjoying the summer. Thanks for reading and thinking about us!

Saturday, July 18, 2009 5:17 PM EDT

Finally, a bit of time for an update. Actually I started an update 2 weeks ago, and didn’t get it posted. I’ve included it below.

I’m more motivated today, because it is a special day… Hannah’s 8th birthday. We really miss her every day, but significant days like today we think about her even more.

We are on our way to Bayfest in Sarnia tonight to see Brad Paisley. Last night we saw Tim McGraw. We ran into lots of friends we don’t see often… a former co-worker from Watford, some nurses from London, and even someone from Guelph. It is nice to have an event like Bayfest to bring so many people to the area.

Funny story… Tim played until after midnight, and it took awhile for us to walk back to the car and drive home. Shortly after we arrived home (around 1 am) a city bus pulled up in front of our house and dropped off a young couple wearing cowboy hats. This was very odd, since we live about 3 miles from the nearest city bus stop. Then I noticed the digital sign on the side of the bus read “Hillbilly Deluxe”. I wish we knew about this special service for Hillbillies.

It is trying to rain today, but not amounting to anything. We spent some time hoeing weeds out of the soybeans at the farm this morning, and trimming shrubs and weeding gardens this afternoon. The crops really need a good rain, but we hope it will hold off until after the Brad Paisley show tonight. We got a bit damp at the concert last night.

Our kitchen cabinets were finished today, so now we have a big job of cleaning up and putting everything away. We still have a couple small things to finish the kitchen reno, but it is nice to be able to use the kitchen again. We went all week without a sink, so we are looking forward to some home cooked meals.

Our summer vacations are all finished for the year, and it seems like summer has only begun. We were at Kincardine with my parents from July 4th to 12th. We had a nice visit with cousin Stuart and Betty Young the first weekend we stayed at the cottage. Cousin Deb and her twin boys from Mexico were up on the second weekend. During the week Uncle Paul and I golfed while Cathy and Aunt Heather looked at cottages in the area. It was a fun week!

Here’s the update I was working on from Wednesday July 8, 2009

Hi again. All is well here in Camlachie. I’m quite grateful Cathy’s health is good 3 years after her diagnosis in June of 2006. Cathy is happy that an election has been averted once again, and she can continue working without the pressure of a summer vote.

We spent our first week of summer vacation at the cottage near Kincardine in June with Cathy’s family. We did a few short day trips, and we went to an Amish fundraising auction. As always, it was a nice relaxing week with lots of good food.

Our crops were planted a bit late, but they look pretty good now. Our corn was almost waist high on July 1st, compared to chest high last year. Within a couple weeks we will start harvesting the winter wheat. Our garden is progressing nicely, and we are starting to pick a few peas.

Our kitchen renovation is coming along nicely. We had to remove all the cupboard doors and fill in all the hinge holes and sand the rough spots. Wallpaper was stripped and the walls were scrubbed. Then we moved all the furniture around to accommodate the painter. Painting should be finished soon, and then the new doors will be installed next week. We’ll be happy to have our kitchen back again.

I was motivated to update the website tonight because I donated blood today, and it always makes me think about Hannah. I met a young magician and illusionist who was donating blood for the first time. He reminded me of the magician Nurse Kim arranged to perform for Hannah on her 3rd birthday. Thanks again Nurse Kim, and everyone else who made Hannah’s 3rd birthday so special for her.

Dad celebrated his 79th birthday yesterday, and Mom had a birthday in June (but I won’t disclose her age). We are going to a party this weekend to see a bunch of my university friends. It is a big year for most of my classmates, as most of us are turning 40 this year. It will be nice to see everybody again.

Well, we better go now. Thanks for visiting Hannah’s website.

Monday, May 18, 2009 10:25 PM EDT

Hello again, and happy Victoria Day. We stayed around home this weekend to work in the garden and on the farm. Cathy painted a closet in the laundry room and made a big pot of soup. I picked up a big trailer load of mulch for under our cedar trees. Last week was rainy again, and we haven’t been able to get any planting done yet. It is starting to get late for corn, but he weather forecast for next week looks good. It will still take a couple days for things to dry out here.

Cathy is working on some plans for renovating our kitchen. Nothing major, but it needs a facelift. With the help of many “consultants”, we have some great ideas now. We’ll keep you posted as we make progress.

We typed up an entry last week, but didn’t get around to posting it. Here’s what we were doing over the last month.

Sunday May 10, 2009

How could a month go by so quickly? The last entry was Easter weekend, and now we are celebrating Mother’s Day.

We had a great Mother’s Day weekend. Cathy’s mom and sister came to visit for the weekend. They did some shopping and we had a nice dinner on Saturday night with my folks. Today we went to church and had lunch at Reece’s Corners.

We haven’t been away since Easter weekend. We’ve had lots of work to do getting ready for the spring planting and gardening season.

Now we are getting busy with yard work. It has been hard to keep up with the grass because we are getting a lot of rain. We still don’t have any crops planted yet. I started cultivating a field on Thursday, but it rained in the afternoon. On Friday after work I started cultivating again, and it poured. We had a bit more rain on Saturday morning, so I think it will be almost a week before things dry out again.

Hannah’s memory continues to inspire us to do a bit extra to make the world a better place. We have been donating Hannah’s clothes and toys to people and organizations when we recognize a need. I was able to donate some blood last week. We always appreciated when Hannah received blood and when people were thoughtful enough to send her a gift. Thanks to everyone for your support!

Sunday, April 12, 2009 9:29 PM EDT

Hello and Happy Easter! We are happy you stopped by Hannah’s website today. I put up some spring pictures and memories of Easter.

This spring we had a nice surprise. We’ve written in the past about Hannah and Grandma Shirley planting some crocus bulbs around the yard in the fall of 2003. Every year a little clump of crocus flowers pops up in the spring to give us a nice memory of Hannah. But the clump always seems to be in a different location every year. This spring was the best show yet…. We were surprised to see 5 separate clumps of crocuses blooming! Where did they come from?

I was thinking about celebrating Easter at the Children’s Hospital in 2004. We hid some Easter Eggs around the room and gave Hannah a little basket to collect them. She wasn’t walking much at the time - she was still recovering from her Bone Marrow Transplant. It was a good excuse to get her up and walking around. Some of the volunteers from Childcan brought in Easter dinner for the families who were in-patient.

April 12, 2003 was the date of Hannah’s last chemotherapy in her first protocol. We were in-patient in London during the time of SARS, so it was an interesting time and there were a lot of restrictions on people coming and going. Hannah did really well with that course of treatment and we were home after about 5 days. It may seem strange to say that she had fun that week, but she was quite used to staying at the hospital, and everyone was happy that she was done her treatment. We even had a little party to celebrate.

Today we were in New Hamburg and Baden to visit with Cathy’s family. Yesterday we were at Bruce Beach visiting with my family. We covered a lot of miles this weekend. Cathy has the day off tomorrow for Easter Monday (lucky girl). I need to start seriously preparing for spring planting. I’m still in winter mode, and have a couple loads of firewood to haul up from the bush. It is still very cold (below 0 C at night) so it is hard to think about planting corn yet. Tonight we walked down to the lake for the first time since the ice has melted.

Both of us have been really busy at work lately. This long weekend was really nice because we were able to visit with family and rest a bit. I hope you all had a great weekend, and thanks again for stopping by Hannah’s website.

Sunday, March 29, 2009 11:08 PM EDT

Another month has gone by. It is hard to believe that are finishing up the third month of 2009!

John and I went to Texas in early March. We visited with Cousins Barry, Natalie, Blake, Meghan, Uncle Dave and Aunt Sharon in San Antonio. It was so nice to see them again.

We drove from San Antonio along some secondary roads (and yes, we did stop at a few farm equipment dealerships!) to Fredricksburg. This area was settled by German immigrants in the 1800s and has many craft shops, restaurants and wineries.

By midweek, we travelled to Houston to the Livestock Show & Rodeo. We went to a couple of concerts ? Trace Adkins and Alan Jackson ? as well as several rodeo performances. It is always interesting meeting new people at the show and we even met up with a fellow who grew up in Brigden!

John has shipped some more corn to the ethanol plant and still has 4,000 bushels to go. Sometimes he loads trucks in the evening after work, and has dinner in the pickup truck with his Dad. It won't be long until planting time and I'm sure that spring fever will be setting in any time now. (did he tell you that he bought a different tractor?) I hope to get some spinach and lettuce planted as soon as I can work the garden.

The MP office has been super busy with lots of folks coming in for passports. Generally, we handle about 150 or more per week likely because of our proximity to the US. I have been attending many meetings on behalf of my MP and it was fun to coordinate recent visits by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Indian Affairs.

Spring seems to be the time for church suppers and fundraising events, and we have been ?out and about? quite a bit. On Friday night we went to a dinner in Ridgetown in support of Ag in the Classroom. What a great meal! Now we are looking forward to Easter and seeing family again.

Sunday, February 22, 2009 9:51 PM EST

Well, we have passed some important milestones in our lives in the past 3 weeks. First of all, the 4th anniversary of Hannah’s passing was on Feb 3rd. Looking back 5 years ago to our notes from Toronto in late February 2004, I see we were always worrying about fevers, tests and the availability of blood products. Sometimes we forget that our lives are less stressful today.

I survived my 40th birthday earlier this month. My co-workers decorated my office and made me wear a purple “Birthday Boy” ribbon. Cathy put my name on the radio so that everyone in Sarnia would know about my “advanced age”. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.

Last week we were really busy. We attended 2 hockey games – both the Sarnia Sting and Legionnaires. Cathy and I had a tour of the new UWO Research Park at the Business After 5 on Wednesday. Cathy was supposed to go to London for a followup visit with her surgeon on Friday, but she cancelled because of the weather. We had a snow storm yesterday afternoon, so I stayed home and took some time to rest a bit.

We had a short break from the wintery weather last weekend, but I was out plowing snow again this morning. Last Monday (Family Day) we shipped out the rest of our soybeans, so it wasn’t much of a day off for me. Poor Cathy had to work because she is a federal employee.

We have a pancake supper coming up this Tuesday at the church. It is usually well attended, so we are hoping for another good crowd this year.

It’s time to go and get caught up with my book keeping. Thanks for visiting Hannah’s website.

Monday, February 2, 2009 10:09 PM EST

Well, February 3rd is almost here again, and we can’t believe it has been 4 years since Hannah left us. Cousin Sara reminded us that 5 years ago we were in Toronto waiting for Hannah to recover from her bone marrow transplant. We were so pleased that she recovered from the transplant and was able to move from Toronto to London in March 2004. Our lives were so much easier at the Children’s Hospital in London compared to Sick Kids.

Over the years we met many other families who lost children after transplant. After going through the experience we viewed every day with Hannah as a gift.

It was a beautiful day yesterday. I was able to check the church parking lot, check my grain bins, wash the car and inspect a new house under construction before 8:30 am. Then we were off to church for 9:30, and went downtown Sarnia for lunch. I couldn’t resist going to the bush to cut up a dead elm tree after lunch. Dad went along to supervise. Cathy stayed home and cooked a delicious turkey dinner.

It was a nice weekend. We were able to go to Strathroy on Saturday morning for a quick shopping trip. Cathy had Friday off and I took a couple hours off so we could do some shopping in Sarnia in the afternoon.

Tonight Cathy made some homemade granola. I’ve been busy finishing off the farm financial records for 2008. Cathy has been researching things for our winter vacation. We have plans to go to Texas before spring.

Thanks for thinking of Hannah today!

Saturday, January 17, 2009 3:19 PM CST

Hello, and welcome to 2009! It is a very cold and snowy day today, so we decided to spend the day at home. We did pop out to the farmer’s market in Sarnia this morning, but it was a quick trip. The cardinals are busy filling up on bird seed on our back porch. Watching them made me think of Hannah and inspired me to update the website.

I’m suffering with a cold this weekend, and Cathy had one last weekend. She needed to take a couple days off work this week to recover, but she seems to be feeling better now. She missed her lymphatic drainage massage this week. Cathy thinks it is helping with the swelling in her arm.

We haven’t been doing anything too exciting since Christmas. In fact, a snow storm kept us apart on New Year’s Eve. After Christmas, Cathy stayed to visit with her family in Baden and New Hamburg. I didn’t have any vacation time left, so I went back to work in Sarnia between Christmas and New Year’s. I was supposed to go back for a fun night out in Waterloo on New Year’s Eve, but the weather kept me at home.

On Boxing Day we traveled to a resort on Lake Simcoe for a weekend with my mother’s family. My parents and my Aunt Anne and Uncle Paul were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversaries. Most of my cousins were able to attend, except for Cousin Barry and family in Texas. We even saw Cousin Dave and family from Ottawa for the first time in several years, and Cousin Deb and her family who live in Mexico.

I’ve been attending some farm meetings this month, and Cathy has been “undecorating” the house. We’ve been researching taking a trip south, but haven’t made any firm decisions. I haven’t started shipping any corn or soybeans yet, but we’ve been plowing some snow and cutting a bit of wood. One sunny Saturday morning I even went hunting for the first time in about 7 years (but don’t tell Cathy). I didn’t have any luck, but it was a nice chance to scout around in the fresh snow and strategize my plans for cutting wood. Actually, it was a pleasure to take the shotgun my Uncle Gus gave me and tramp through the home farm the way my Dad and his brothers did as they grew up. As I type this Cathy is listening to the radio, and the Alan Jackson song “It’s Alright to be a Redneck” is playing. How appropriate!

We are really pleased that our friends and family continue to check in to this website. Hannah’s memory is alive and well in our house, and we are pleased to know that she touched your lives in a special way as well. We really appreciate your messages on the site and emails. A special thanks to everyone who sent a Christmas card. It was really nice to hear from you including some of the nurses we came to know well during our time at the hospital. Thanks for keeping in touch!

Sunday, December 14, 2008 8:08 AM CST

Somehow the month of November passed us by without a website update. I’m up early this morning, so it seems like a good time to catch up.

We had several early snowfalls and lots of cold weather already this fall, and I still have a few leaves to rake in the back yard. I was wishing my little helper was here. This picture was taken in the fall of 2003. Grandma and Grandpa Young came over for a visit, and we had to pretend not to see Hannah hiding in the pile of leaves so that she could surprise them.

Cathy has been decorating the house for Christmas. At work they are overwhelmed with phone calls regarding the political uncertainty facing the federal government. After the election we thought things would be fairly stable for a few years, but now only 2 months later we wonder how long it will be before another election.

Cathy is going to start “lymphatic drainage massage” next week. Hopefully this will reduce the swelling in her right arm and hand. There is no pain associated with this swelling. She has been feeling good, with no need for followup medical appointments since Thanksgiving.

We were away for one weekend at the end of November. We traveled to New Dundee to have dinner with Cathy’s former co-workers, and then we stayed with Susan & Gord. The next day we went to London for the Libro “Staff Appreciation Day” dinner and dance.

Looking back, November seems like a bit of a blur. Most of my time and effort went into harvesting corn. We finished on November 25 – a snowy, rainy day. It took a few days to dry the wet corn down to a safe storage moisture. In fact, yesterday I finished taking most of the corn out of the drier bin and I found some wet, frozen corn clinging to the walls. We had this problem 2 years ago and it caused a lot of spoilage, so I was happy to uncover the problem now before it got any worse. After filling 6 wagons with corn and cleaning up the wet spots, I turned around and augered the corn back into the bin. Normally we ship it out from January to April.

Growing corn is a lot of work compared to wheat and soybeans, but we had the best crop ever this year, so I don’t mind. It has been many years since we had all 5 of our bins full of crop going into the winter. We have already shipped 9370 bushels of corn and 1070 bushels of soys, and I’ll be watching for opportunities to sell the rest in the new year.

Dad helped me out all day yesterday. Normally he needs to have an afternoon nap, but yesterday he was feeling well enough to brave the bitter cold and wind. We took a quick trip to the back of our farm to look at the beaver dam. I haven’t seen it yet, but I hear from some hunters that there is a second dam upstream, so the population must be growing. Dad has never seen a beaver on the farm in his 78 years. Later in the day I saw a flock of 18 wild turkeys feeding in the corn stubble. Again, we have only started seeing wild turkeys in the last 5 years. It is interesting to see how the wildlife is evolving in the area.

Cathy is now up and she just brought me a coffee. She is getting a lesson ready for Sunday School this morning. I better go and have some breakfast. Thanks for checking in, and Merry Christmas!

Friday, October 31, 2008 10:49 PM CDT

It is Halloween and I’m home for the evening. We only had 20 kids tonight, less than normal. It is a beautiful night after a cold, wet and windy week. Tonight reminds me of 2003 when Hannah and I went Trick or Treating on a nice evening. She really enjoyed getting out and seeing our neighbours. When we got home she sampled one of her treats – some ketchup chips. She tried a little bit and told us “I love ketchup chips!”

Hannah had the chance to dresss up for Halloween three times, but my favourite picture is Mary Poppins. One of the nurses took this picture. She had a fantastic day with all the Halloween activities at the hospital. Lots of the staff dressed up which really added to the fun.

The last week has been a blur because we started into our corn harvest. I’ve been at the farm every day, often several times. In fact, last Friday night I slept on Mom & Dad’s couch until 5 am. No, I wasn’t in trouble with Cathy…. I was watching the corn drier. Today I took most of the day off from Libro to load a transport truck and to fill a bin with dry corn. We are really just getting started. I still need to dry enough corn for 3 truck loads to ship and 3 bins to fill (about 12,500 bu). Tomorrow we will harvest some more to fill the drier. So far it looks like a good crop.

Since the last update we have harvested the soybeans and planted the wheat. The soybeans were above average. It has been so cold that the wheat hasn’t emerged yet.

Cathy is working harder than ever. Our local MP was re-elected on the 14th so she has a bit of job security for awhile. We’ve been talking about getting a new car for Cathy, so last week we replaced her Corolla with an ’09. She put a lot of miles on the last car with many trips to London. It is very good on gas, so we drive it a lot.

We’ve been having some fun lately. 2 weeks ago was our annual trip to Oktoberfest. It was great seeing lots of friends and enjoying the festivities. Last weekend we went to a wine and beer tasting at Lambton College. This weekend we will be going to a hockey game in Sarnia. We’ve also been to a couple church suppers.

Gotta go... we have a big day planned tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by to check on us.

Sunday, October 12, 2008 9:30 PM CDT

It has been almost a month since the last website update. I had to read it over to see what we were up to early in September. Hurricane Ike dumped 4 inches of rain on us, so it took a few days to dry out. We went to the International Plowing Match at Teeswater for two days. Then we came back for the RazMaTaz cancer fundraiser in Sarnia. It was a really fun evening and we met a lot of great people.

Thanks to everyone who mentioned that they really liked the picture of Hannah that we had up last month. I hope you like this fall scene as well.

We don’t have any soybeans harvested yet. The crop is ready, but we are just waiting for the combine to arrive. We are having beautiful weather this weekend … it has been warm and dry. Cathy & I ate dinner outside on the patio tonight. Dinners together at home are precious these days. We have both been very busy lately. The election is only two days away, so Cathy’s schedule should be getting back to normal soon. Mine will likely get more hectic as we get closer to corn harvest. Our dinners in the next while might be in the field on the back of the pickup truck!

We held our annual “Hannah’s Pumpkin Patch” fundraiser at the Credit Union on Thursday and Friday. People were very generous once again, and we raised over $1,000 for the Children’s Hospital. Speaking of the hospital, we were down there on Friday for Cathy’s 3 month checkup. She had a good report at the Cancer Clinic and can wait for 6 months until her next appointment. She is switching from Tamoxifen to a different drug and will be on this new one for 5 years to prevent recurrence.

We popped up to the seventh floor of the Children’s Hospital to see if any of Hannah’s friends were working. After almost 4 years, when we visit these days we don’t usually see any kids we know, but this time was different. One of the little girls who was in treatment for AML at the same time as Hannah was also up for a visit. Her health is good and it was just an annual checkup. In fact, this little 7 year old is the only one of the four little 2 year-old girls who survived treatment for AML in 2003 & 2004. It was very inspiring to see her (and her mother) again.

Over the last month I’ve thought about Hannah and how much we miss her. Hannah’s health usually was best in the fall, and we spent more time at home. We even took a quick trip to the Brigden Fair one Thanksgiving weekend. We certainly have lots to be thankful for with those wonderful memories.

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Sunday, September 14, 2008 9:17 AM EDT

I’m up a bit early today, so it seems like a good time for an update. Hurricane Ike is expected to arrive this afternoon, and we are already saturated with rain from the last two days. The skies are somewhat clear right now. I suspect if we headed out for a walk we wouldn’t get very far. Oh well, I have my morning coffee, and a long list of jobs to do around the house today. Cathy is working on her lesson for Sunday School this morning.

Last night seemed like a good time to get out the video camera and watch some Hannah videos. I chose one from the spring of 2003 when she was finishing up her original treatments for AML. We were at home some of the time, and Hannah was walking and talking like crazy. It was fun to watch her being so active and enjoying her toys here at home. I really must get the videos transferred onto DVD so we have another copy of these great memories.

Cathy is keeping very busy these days with her work. An election has been called, and her office continues to help the constituents, but they have to stay independent of the campaign. She has been volunteering at the campaign office in the evenings. She is also helping with a committee for a fundraising auction for the cancer society. The auction is coming up next weekend. We took a drive up to Parkhill last weekend to pick up a unique donation…. a hand-made willow chair. This really nice farm couple was kind enough to donate the chair, and we spent some time learning how they make them. Cathy even went hunting for young willow trees to put the finishing touches on the chair. She was wishing she had brought shoes rather than sandals.

Yesterday (Saturday) we both went to work in the morning, trying to keep on top of things. We have plans to go to the International Plowing Match this coming week, so we don’t want to get behind. At noon we went to Greek Fest in Sarnia and had a delicious lunch. Thank goodness we had umbrellas, because it was pouring rain. We had hoped to go to the Wyoming Fair this weekend, but the rain will keep us away.

Better sign off now. Thanks so much for checking in.

Thursday, September 4, 2008 10:42 PM EDT

Good evening, and welcome to Hannah’s website. I’ve been having a bit of a reflective day, so I looked back to September of 2004 to see what we were up to. I found a great entry about some of the activities Hannah kept us entertained with. Here’s an entry from Sept 2, 2004:

"Hannah and Daddy started the day by looking at the Sears Wishbook. They were picking out lots of presents for friends and family, but mostly themselves! Hannah saw a princess telephone, and she said “Ring…Ring”. Apparently it was Prince Charming calling, and he wanted to take her out. Daddy was a bit skeptical, but he agreed to let her go, if they were home by 10. Daddy ended up driving her, and they went to a great party where they danced to Rock’n Roll and drank gingerale. What a wonderful make-believe world Hannah has.

Lisa, a Child Life Specialist, dropped by later with a toy coffee maker. Hannah set up shop immediately, and a big line formed for her pretend coffee. Grandma and Grandpa Young arrived in time for a cup. Then they played with her Dora the Explorer dolls, while Daddy snuck out for work. Mommy was able to go to the oncology parents’ coffee time down the hall sponsored by ChildCan and appreciated the break.

Later in the day, Hannah wanted to go to “school”. She said that Mommy had to stay at home, and Grandma Young was the teacher (she’s a retired teacher). Hannah learned lots of things. The most memorable thing she told us about was her lunch (at least she likes to pretend to eat). She was going to have peanut butter sandwiches, an apple, a pretzel, and a drink. Mommy was happy to see her come home from school and hear all about her day playing with other kids, doing crafts, learning to read, etc."

What great memories…. I’m glad we have this journal to look back at. Our first journal entry was September 6, 2002.

I was thinking back to eight years ago today when I traded my coveralls and rubber boots for a tie, and left 8 years on the turkey farm for the financial world. I miss the farm some days, but it has been a good decision. Libro has been great to our family.

We had a good Labour Day weekend. On Friday night we went to a musical at the Imperial Theatre in Petrolia with Mom & Dad and some of their friends. The play was called Oil Rush, and it was a great history lesson about Oil Springs and Petrolia. (not many people know that the first commercial oil well in North America was discovered in Oil Springs, Ontario 150 years ago?) On Saturday afternoon we went to the Lambton County Plowing Match near Petrolia. In the evening we went to a fundraiser for a cancer patient. The fundraiser was held in Oil Springs, and it was packed. I think they were very successful. We were greeted by the mayor of the town, and had a nice visit with my cousins there.

On Sunday we headed east and attended a barbeque with a lot of our Waterloo friends near St. George. It was great to see everybody and to see the Werbicky’s new house. Later in the evening we visited with family in Baden, and spent the night at Cathy’s mom’s house. We came home on Monday to attack the weeds in the garden at our house.

We’ve been out for walks almost every night this week enjoying the warm weather. On Tuesday night we walked down to the Errol Village school…. Hannah would start Grade 2 this year. As we walked we discussed what type of backpack she might have? Some times it is hard not to ask “What if?”

Sunday, August 24, 2008 10:51 PM CDT

Hi friends! We returned home today after a week of vacation at Bruce Beach. We were greeted by 5 new moonflowers by the back door. The house looked fine, there was some rain in the rain gauge, and the grass doesn’t need to be cut for another day or two. It is good to be home.

Today we had a brunch in Kincardine to celebrate my Mom & Dad’s 50th anniversary. They didn’t want to do much to celebrate this special event, so we just had a small gathering with Mom’s family and some friends from the beach.

So we didn’t do much for our holiday. It was great to get rested up and spend some time with Mom & Dad. We enjoyed lots of good food, nice weather, and caught up with many old friends.

Better make this a short update…. We have to get unpacked and go to work tomorrow. Hope you are enjoying the summer, and check back in again soon.

Sunday, August 11, 2008 10:35 PM EDT

I’m updating the website today because it is another rainy day. The garden will have to wait for another few days to dry out.

First, I wanted to share a little poem we received from a friend recently.

I found a penny today
Laying on the ground.
But it's not just a penny,
This little coin I've found.
Found pennies come from heaven,
that's what my Grandpa told me.
He said Angels toss them down.
Oh, how I loved that story.
He said when an Angel misses you,
They toss a penny down;
Sometimes just to cheer you up,
To make a smile out of your frown.
So, don't pass by that penny
When you're feeling blue.
It may be a penny from heaven
That an Angel's tossed to you.

This poem arrived in our inbox at the perfect time. We were cleaning our carpet in the family room this weekend, so we moved some furniture around. We have moved this furniture for vacuuming many times before, but this time was different. When I picked up our recliner chair, I must have tipped it just the right way, and a few coins fell out. When I stopped to scoop up my newly found pennies from Heaven, I noticed a few other items on the floor that made me stop and smile. First was a scotch mint. Cathy’s dad, Stuart, always kept some scotch mints in his pocket, and we don’t often have them around the house. Then I noticed 3 special beads….. Hannah’s bravery beads! I wonder if she was playing with them in this chair 5 years ago?

Last night we went to a shed party on a farm near Petrolia. They had a pig roast and a live country band. We stayed home on Friday night because we were tired out from Thursday – we went for a 4 hour boat cruise on the Duc. For those of you who aren’t from around here, it is a boat cruise out into Lake Huron and down the St. Clair River to Mooretown and back to Sarnia. On Wednesday we went to Alvinston for the annual Lambton Cattlemen’s beef barbeque. We haven’t had many dinners at home lately.

Cathy is planning some important political meetings this week for the Energy Caucus. She’s been very busy organizing, so we hope things go smoothly. I’ll be going to a farm field day later in the week. Cathy’s car is going for a “spa day” tomorrow – something she bought at a golf tournament. We wouldn’t normally buy something like this, but she had the only bid on the item, so it was a good deal. Maybe it will be like having a new car?

Monday, August 4, 2008 10:30 PM EDT

Hello friends. We just came home after a walk, and arrived just in time so see one of our moonflowers open. I think Hannah would have found these moonflowers interesting. If you haven’t seen one, the flowers pop open over a period of a couple minutes just before dark. Hannah was quite patient, and I think she would have enjoyed watching this.

I’m quite tired tonight after a big weekend. We packed up right after work on Friday and headed up to Bruce County. We stopped for a quick dinner at Bayfield and arrived just before 10 pm. We stayed with Uncle Paul and Aunt Heather the first night. On Saturday we drove down to Goderich to do some shopping, and then headed back to Bruce Beach to see the West family.

It was a big 10 year reunion weekend in Kincardine, so we went to parades on Saturday and Sunday night. Saturday was the normal Scottish bagpipe parade. Sunday was the “nightshirt” parade, which is hard to describe if you haven’t attended one. I’ve had the pleasure of participating in 5 nightshirt parades over the years, and this was likely the most flamboyant I’ve witnessed. I didn’t properly explain the event to Cathy and cousins Jeff, Pam, Kerry and Rob – they were all nightshirt parade “virgins”. It is safe to say they are no longer innocent! Everyone had a great time, and I’m sure we’ll be planning on attending the next one in 10 years.

Gotta take a quick break…. Cathy just brought me a bowl of fresh peaches and ice cream.

Delicious! OK, what else have we been up to? Last week I was at the farm almost every night after work. We were lucky to finish harvesting our winter wheat last Sunday. We still have a couple trucks to load, but about 60f the crop has been delivered. Today I was out taking soil samples to prepare for the corn crop next year. Fertilizer is very expensive, so I have to plan carefully. Cathy has been very busy gardening here at our house, and she has things looking pretty good. We’ve had lots of rain, so we don’t need to do much watering this year.

That’s about all for this update. We are pleased you stopped by!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:31 PM EDT

Thanks to everyone who checked in and left messages last Friday on Hannah’s birthday (and every other day for that matter). In honour of that special day, I cut some sunflowers from the garden and took them to Libro. Cathy & I went to “Ribfest” in Sarnia after work. Actually, Cathy had most of the day off, but she did go along with the MP to the Suncor Ethanol plant for an important funding announcement.

Another rainy night tonight! We had a big storm with over 2 inches of rain at the farm. Cathy & I took a picture of a funnel cloud way up in the sky to the south. Hopefully no damage was done. We went for a nice walk at 9:30 tonight when things cleared up a bit.

Our corn and soybeans are looking great, and the rain will keep them growing. The wheat really needs to be harvested soon, but I guess we’ll have to wait for a few more days. Last night we went to work in the garden, hoping to catch up on some weeding. The ground was too wet for tilling, but Cathy picked a huge bag of green beans, a bag of lettuce and basil, and another bag of peas while Dad and I scouted the crops.

We took a trip to Baden and New Hamburg this past weekend for the Honderich family reunion. We met at the farm that has been in the Honderich family since 1825. It was great to see everyone again.

I can’t think of too many other activities. It took me a few days last week to recover from spending so many nights at Bayfest. I’m getting older you know. Cathy seems to take it all in stride.

Sunday, July 13, 2008 11:21 PM EDT

What a beautiful summer day! Not too hot, but nice and sunny with a good breeze. With the breeze it is cool enough to turn off the air conditioning. There seem to be lots of people out enjoying summer activities today. We skipped church and spent a quiet morning at home after a busy week.

We’ve been taking part in lots of summer activities lately. This is the week of “Bayfest” in Sarnia and we had tickets to all the shows. Last Sunday we heard Bon Jovi, Wednesday was Fergie, Thursday was Motley Crue, Friday was The Black Crowes, Saturday was Rascal Flatts and tonight we saw Emerson Drive and Big & Rich. It was a great show! We’ve never been to all the concerts at Bayfest before, so this was a really fun week.

Cathy had an appointment with the radiation oncologist on Thursday, and she received a good report. She doesn’t have many trips to London any more, which is fine with her. I was able to play golf in a tournament on Friday, and Cathy joined us for dinner.

Last weekend we went to the cottage to visit with my family and my cousins from Mexico. They have two-year-old twin boys. They are great kids and we enjoyed seeing them again. We also met up with a bunch of my university friends between Goderich and Kincardine on Saturday for a beach party.

At the end of June we spent a whole week at the cottage with Cathy’s family. We did some golfing, shopping and a lot of relaxing.

We’ve been away quite a bit and luckily don’t have a lot of work pressing around the farm right now. This weekend Dad and I were cleaning out the grain bins so that we will be ready for the wheat harvest. I’m scouting the crops every couple days and they look pretty good so far. We’ll likely start harvesting wheat in another week or so.

We have a much smaller garden this year and Cathy picked some peas and lettuce today. It is always nice to have fresh produce straight from the garden! We had frequent rains all through June, and that prevented us from getting much planting done.

Thanks for checking in on our family. Please drop us a note and let us know what your family is doing this summer.

Sunday, June 22, 2008 10:59 PM EDT

In our last update I was hoping for a bit more rain. My wish came true! Over the last few weeks we’ve had rain almost every day. Not a huge amount at a time, but things never seem to dry out. We haven’t been able to plant any more garden, and what we have planted is getting very weedy. All we could do this week was pull out large weeds because it is too wet for the roto-tiller. At least we don’t have flooding like in Iowa and the Midwest.

Cathy walked her second “Survivor’s Lap” on Friday at the Sarnia Relay for Life. She saw many of our friends who were out to support this important cause. I worked late and headed right home to mow the lawn, taking advantage of an unusually dry evening. I’ve been keeping busy working on “book work” for the farm, and scouting crops. Everything looks pretty good right now, but we are watching closely for army worms these days.

We found a nice little kitten this week while we were working in the garden. Our neighbour Cindy came to the rescue with some food, and took the kitten home. I know Cindy and her family will take good care of it.

Last weekend we spent a couple days at the family cottage near Kincardine. We celebrated our 9th anniversary on June 12th, so we went to an Amish auction last Saturday near Chesley. We bid on a few nice things, but all we took home was a cherry pie, a funnel and an old potato fork. It was fun watching everyone squish through the mud.

The sunset over the lake was really nice tonight. The water turned purple, and I had to wonder what Hannah would say if she could see it. I looked for a picture of her dressed in purple, and found a nice one of us looking out the window one evening watching for hot-air balloons.

As we welcomed the arrival of summer this week, I thought of the three summers we spent in London. During the summer of 2004 I only spent one night in our house. The cropping season came and went without my help. Our neighbours all worked to keep our lawn cut and the hedge trimmed. We were blessed to have had the opportunity to spend so much time with Hannah.

Anyway, I hope you are all enjoying the first few days of summer, and thank you for visiting our site. I see the counter has gone over 200,000 hits, which is amazing!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008 10:05 PM EDT

We are having a nice gentle shower tonight and the robins are happy. I was looking forward to getting some more rain now that we have all the crops planted. We had a bit on the weekend, but not much at the farm to perk up the crops. It has been quite dry so far this spring.

Just a quick update tonight….. it has been awhile since I’ve been around in the evening to spend any time on the computer.

Last night we worked in the garden. We have a few things planted and growing, but still a lot of planting to do. (including all of our pumpkins!)

This past weekend we went to New Hamburg for the Mennonite Relief Sale. It was nice to see Cathy’s family and a lot of good friends attending the event. I’m enjoying the cherry pie we brought home from the sale.

I finished planting soybeans on Friday morning after a really productive day on Thursday. Cathy brought a nice dinner to the field on Thursday night that helped keep me going until after 11 pm.

We attended the annual Hannah’s Mailbox dedication the previous weekend. A few families who lost children in the past year weren’t able to make it, but we had previously met all the other families that attended. Ronald McDonald House in London was our home for many months while Hannah stayed in hospital. We checked in & out about 23 times during our journey, so we met a lot of people over the years.

Cathy and I had some friends volunteer to help us with picking stones a week ago. It was a beautiful day for the job – sunny but nice and cool. We were a bit stiff for a few days. We still have a lot of acres to finish.

On the long weekend we traveled to my cousin’s home in Markham for a Young family reunion. Most of the family was able to make it, so it was nice to see everybody.

It’s time for bed soon. We were up late last night watching the hockey game and we both have an early day planned tomorrow. Cathy is going to a meeting at 7:15 am and I have a meeting in London. Thanks for checking in.

Sunday, May 11, 2008 10:24 PM CDT

Happy Mother’s Day. It was a nice cool spring day. We had a much needed shower this afternoon. It has been quite dry this spring so far. Our corn was planted two weeks ago and is just starting to emerge now. We need a bit more warmth before we will plant any soybeans.

To celebrate Mother’s Day we went for brunch at the Bonnie Doon golf course with my Mom & Dad and some friends from church. Yesterday Cathy and her friend Betty Anne went to a Mother’s Day dinner at a local church. The theme was purses, so Cathy took one of Hannah’s purses and some pictures of our little angel. Earlier in the day Cathy went to an auction sale at a greenhouse/nursery and bought some bargains.

On Friday night we went to a Chamber of Commerce fundraiser. Cathy went on a downtown restaurant tour on Thursday night and had a lot of fun with her coworkers. It seemed like we had something going on almost every night, so the rest of the week is a blur.

We are now officially a two red car family. I picked up a new(er) car yesterday. As I cleaned out the Taurus (the car we traded in), I had many thoughts of Hannah. I found a Barney tape and a piece of cardboard with the outline of Hannah’s little feet. I think Cathy was using this to shop for shoes for Hannah when she was in the hospital.

We bought the Taurus in 2001 when Cathy was expecting Hannah. It was our better car, so Cathy drove it when Hannah was a baby. We traveled a lot of miles as a family in that car. I’ve wanted to sell that car for several years now, but when I left it behind at the dealership yesterday it was a bit tough emotionally. It was another page of Hannah’s story.

I’ve told this story before, but I was reminded about sitting with Hannah in Toronto looking out the window one day. Someone had parked a nice new shiny red PT Cruiser at the front door of Sick Kids. I said “Look at that car Hannah, wouldn’t it be nice to have a nice new red car like that”. Hannah said wisely “Dad, you already have a red car”. I replied “But Hannah, wouldn’t it be nice to have a NEW car?” She said no. Then I said “I’ll just save my money so I can give it to you”, and she replied “Dad, I already have money”. Finally I said “Maybe I should just give the money to Mommy”, and she agreed that would be best.

How can a 2 ½ year old be so wise?

Friday, April 25, 2008 4:05 PM EDT

We have a sign in our kitchen – “We interrupt this marriage to bring you the planting and harvest seasons!” Anyone who has ever lived on a farm can relate to this line.

John has been working hard to get the corn planted. He was fairly close to finishing yesterday but ran out of seed. It was my day off today so I was delegated to pick up more seed. I was a little nervous when the dealer told me to just back the truck into the shed and I had to back it through a very narrow space between a large piece of equipment and a building and then into the shed. I was pretty proud that I was able to pull it off without an incident!

A warm and muggy day greeted us this morning. We had a light shower last night but it won’t slow down work at the farm. John had to go to the office for half of the day but will finish planting this afternoon.

I was able to find some asparagus at the farm so that will be a nice spring treat. I also want to pick some dandelion greens for salad. I planted a variety of lettuces and peas but so far there is only a little green showing. I heard that there is a chance of snow on Monday night! Let’s hope not!

It has been an interesting spring in the MP’s office. I have attended many events including funding announcements, open houses, ribbon cuttings, annual meetings, fund raisers, banquets, even a car rally! I really enjoy the challenges that every new day brings. It is quite amazing why some folks will call an MP’s office! You wouldn’t believe the stories we hear!

I should get a few things cleaned up around the house. Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008 8:59 PM CDT

It’s time for another website update. Cathy is attending a UCW meeting tonight, so I’ve been left alone to clean up the house. I’m sure she won’t mind if I take a few minutes to say hello to our friends.

We fired up the barbeque tonight to cook dinner. This was the first time in 2008. I was late getting home after working at the Poultry show in London today. It was a good day to say hello to a lot of old friends from my years working in the turkey business.

This was the first night this week that we’ve had dinner together. I went to the farm after work the last couple nights to spread clover seed on the winter wheat. It is nice to have some daylight into the evening to get some work done.

We went to the cottage on the weekend. There was a bit of snow on the ground in the shady spots, but it was melting quickly with the warm weather. I shipped our final load of corn on Saturday morning before leaving for Kincardine. Now we just have a half load of soybeans left to ship, and it will soon be time to get the equipment ready to plant crops again this year. The winter wheat is just starting to green up again with the warm temperatures.

I don’t remember much about last week. We were quite busy and had a few dinners out, including a nice dinner with Mom, Dad, Aunt Heather and Uncle Paul.

I know I’ve told this story before, but I’m always reminded at this time of year. One sunny fall day in 2003, Grandma Shirley and Hannah spent some time planting some crocus bulbs around the yard. On Saturday we noticed a nice yellow crocus in the lawn. Now there are 3 clusters with at least 6 flowers on each cluster. This is the best group of flowers we’ve seen over the years. What a treat and great memory for us to see every spring.

Enjoy the spring flowers!

Sunday, March 23, 2008 10:52 PM EDT

Hello and Happy Easter. It was a beautiful day today here in Southwestern Ontario. We still have quite a bit of snow in our yard, but the bare spots are getting bigger every day. It has been a long time since we have had such a slow thaw. Lake Huron still has ice out as far as we can see, so it is hard to believe spring already arrived.

As I watched the kids next door running around gathering Easter eggs in their back yard today, I was thinking about spending Easter with Hannah. We took this picture in our back yard in 2003. Grandpa Stu hung up some Easter eggs in the shrubs for Hannah to look at. She enjoyed riding around in the wheelbarrow, and seeing family of course.

As I listened to the cardinals singing in the yard today, I remembered that March 23/04 was the day that Hannah was admitted into the Children’s Hospital in London for the final time. We had been staying at Ronald McDonald house, and Hannah and I noticed a cardinal living outside the house. Hannah was really interested in birds, so we kept our eyes open for this beautiful cardinal.

We had hoped to be in and out of the hospital in a couple days, because Hannah had just gotten through spending over two months in Toronto after her bone marrow transplant. At Easter in 2004 she was still at the hospital. We were having a hard time getting her to walk, so we put some Easter eggs around her room and helped her walk around and find them. It worked well.

Today we were up early for church. Cathy sang with the choir and they really sounded great. We had a good crowd this morning, so all the music was nice. This afternoon I spent some time at the farm, and then we went out for dinner with Mom and Dad.

Last night we met Cathy’s family up near Grand Bend for dinner. In the morning I worked at Libro, and Cathy helped the Bright's Grove Optimists with the Easter in the Park event. In the afternoon she attended a boat christening on behalf of the MP. On Good Friday we spent a quiet day at home.

The week before, Cathy had her first “Happy Friday” when she didn’t have to travel to London for treatment. She enjoyed having the day off.

I had a dream about Hannah last night. It was nice, because I don’t dream about her often. Hannah was watching me work in the turkey barns where I worked more than 20 years ago. She was just as I remember, about 3 ½ years old, with nice curly hair. We talked a bit and she shared some of her wisdom with me. I hope to dream about her again soon.

Better go now. Tomorrow Cathy has the day off work, but I have a busy day planned. Thanks for stopping by Hannah’s website!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 10:16 PM

I have a bit more time and energy tonight. The week is half over, and we are looking forward to the weekend. Next week is a short week with Good Friday. Cathy gets Easter Monday off as well. Maybe I shouldn’t have teased her when she had to work on Family Day last month?

Our bathroom renovations are almost done. We are really happy to have the shower working this week. There is just some touch-up painting to finish.

I’ll have to get the video camera out and watch a video of Hannah when she was about 21 months old. She was playing in the bathroom one morning, and she started to talk about painting. I asked her what colour she wanted to paint it, and she replied “Green, yellow, orange, blue, purple….” I’m glad we didn’t let her pick out the colour for her room!

Last night Cathy went to craft night at the church, and I did some work around the farm. On the way home we got stuck in the deep drifting snow on our road. Visibility was fine, but the south side of the road was too deep to drive through. With some shoveling and a push from some neighbours, we were able to get home safely.

I started an update on Sunday night, but ran out of energy. Here are my thoughts from the other night.

Sunday March 9, 2008

I’m getting too tired to update tonight. I was up at 7 am to head to the church to plow snow. It took about half an hour to dig my way out our driveway after the snow storm last night. Driving to the church I noticed a lot of flashing lights on Lakeshore Road, back behind our house. I thought it must be an accident, but Cathy heard on the radio that they had to close that stretch of Lakeshore because there were so many abandoned cars stuck on the road.

It was quite a storm yesterday! Needless to say, I spent most of the morning plowing snow here at our house, at Mom & Dad’s, the farm, and at the church…. with help from other farmers in the neighbourhood. At least it was a nice sunny day, not too windy or cold.

On Saturday morning I was up early, expecting a big snowfall. There wasn’t much new snow at all, so I decided to go to work in Sarnia. As soon as I got there the snow started. At noon I headed for home, and the driving and visibility were very poor. It was nice to spend a quiet afternoon at home with Cathy.

Sunday, February 24, 2008 10:28 PM EST

It was a beautiful sunny weekend here in Southwestern Ontario. The nights remain very cold, but the sunshine is pleasant during the day. We still have a fair bit of snow.

First of all, don’t you like the picture above? It reminds me of how much fun we had at home with Hannah. She was very active and happy when we were home, and we still treasure our memories of those times.

Cathy & I wrapped up a busy week, so we took today off to rest. Actually we did quite a bit of cleaning around the house today. Our bathroom renovations are coming along quite well, but with all the workers around, the house needs to be cleaned about 3 times a week. By the end of this coming week we should have most elements of a bathroom again. We can use the tub again, but we don’t have a shower, toilet or sink yet.

Yesterday (Saturday), Cathy had to attend two federal funding announcements in the riding and at one of them she met the Environment Minister, John Baird. I spent the day at the farm, cleaning out a grain bin and loading a transport truck load of corn. My friend Duane helped out, which was nice because Mom & Dad were in London at the Grand Theatre.

The most satisfying part of the week was Friday. Cathy had her final Herceptin treatment in London. She has been receiving this drug by IV every 3 weeks over the past year. The weather sounded a bit threatening, so I went along. There was a bit of snow in the morning, but the driving was fine. We arrived in London at 8 am and she was finished around noon. We had a quick visit with some old friends on the 7th floor and PMDU before leaving. We rushed back to Sarnia because we both had some work to catch up on.

My co-workers at Libro are very thoughtful, and they treated Cathy to a bottle of wine and a bouquet of flowers to celebrate her success with her treatments. Cathy and I didn’t get home from work till 7 pm on Friday, so we went to Huron Oaks for dinner.

What else did we do last week? Monday was “Family Day” but Cathy had to work because she is a federal employee. I took the morning off, had lunch with Mom & Dad, and went to work for a bit in the afternoon. It is hard to keep up with the workload right now because we are training a new account manager.

Cathy had “craft night” at the church on Tuesday. Luckily the ladies discovered that the heat was off. Unfortunately it was caused by a flooded basement. I wasn’t too far away, so I helped some of the other stewards get a portable pump and pump all the water out of the furnace room. It was a mess, but we were happy to find it before the water rose any higher and caused more damage.

On Wednesday after work we went to a Chamber of Commerce networking event in Sarnia. Cathy organized an agricultural meeting with the MP on Thursday. Her office is always extra busy when the MP is in the riding for the week. On Thursday night we went to see the comedian Lorne Elliott in Sarnia with my cousins Anne & Terry.

I don’t think we have anything special coming up this week. After last week, I think we need to rest a bit more. Thanks for checking in.

Sunday, February 17, 2008 10:43 PM EST

Hello again friends. Another two weeks have passed without an update. We’ve been putting up with lots of wintery weather and more snow than normal lately. The cold temperatures have been keeping us from our evening walks.

Our bathroom renovations got started last week, so we are living without our main bathroom right now. The contractor is making good progress. Hopefully we will have our shower back soon. I’m sure our co-workers will agree!

People have been calling this a “long weekend” because tomorrow is Family Day. It doesn’t seem like a long weekend to us. Cathy is a federal employee, so she has to work tomorrow. I’ll be enjoying the day off, but I might go to the office to get caught up on some work. Mom and Dad had some problems with a wet basement today, so I hope it stays dry tomorrow and I don’t have to help clean up again.

Yesterday we traveled to Guelph to attend the “Dream Auction” for the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program. It was great to see so many of our friends in the ag industry. We came home with some great purchases.

We stayed in New Hamburg last night, and woke up this morning to lots of freezing rain. We waited until about noon when the temperature went above freezing, and had a safe drive home. We did stop to try to help a young man who lost control and wrecked his truck. Luckily he wasn’t hurt, but I think he’ll be shopping for a new vehicle.

We’ve had quite a few dinners out over the last couple weeks. I celebrated another birthday last Monday. Cathy & I were out on Wednesday. After dinner she attended an interior design seminar while I went to a church meeting. We didn’t do anything special on Valentines Day, but the trip to Guelph yesterday was nice.

I was just reading back in my notes to see how we celebrated Valentines when Hannah was in Toronto. I remember the kids making cards for each other, and the parents delivering them around to the rooms. Her counts were just starting to improve, but she was still in strict isolation. On the 17th of Februrary 2004 I wrote that Hannah wanted to sit with me and watch TV. This was the first time in many weeks that she asked to sit with me, so we knew she was starting to feel better.

Being a father was wonderful…. On our Valentine’s update I wrote, “Hug your kids for us”. Since tomorrow is Family Day, I hope you’ll give the kids another hug for us. Enjoy the day!

Sunday, February 3, 2008 10:55 PM EST

The Superbowl is over, and I haven’t updated the website yet. I’ve been wondering what to write all day. This is a very significant day in Hannah’s story. It was three years ago today that we last saw and held our little girl

Honestly, I think about Hannah every day. We try not to make a big deal about today because we would rather remember the good times than the sad. And we try not to feel sorry for ourselves, and rather try to appreciate how lucky we were to have Hannah for 3 ½ years. It’s hard not to feel sorry for Hannah knowing what she had to go through in life. We are lucky she was such a great little person and taught us so much about bravery and enjoying life.

Today I saw a father taking a young daughter for a walk in a stroller. They were going to Tim Horton’s in Bright’s Grove. I’m sure the little girl was thrilled to go out with her dad for a treat. I started thinking about the past, and remembered many long walks we took around the hospital, pushing Hannah in her stroller or pulling her in the wagon. It was quite a sight to see, because she usually had several IV pumps on a pole to roll along with us. We would sometimes stop at Tim’s for a treat, or hide on Cathy and make her find us. The IV kept us on a short leash, and the pumps would need to be charged or reset, so we always ended up heading back to the seventh floor to see the nurses. It wasn’t total freedom, but it beat the many months that Hannah spent in her room when her immunity was low.

In memory of Hannah and Stuart, Cathy picked up a nice bouquet of flowers for the church service today. After the service I helped to set up the hall for the pancake supper on Tuesday, while Cathy stayed after for choir practice. We are both suffering from colds, but her voice is good enough to sing. I can’t use that excuse, because even in perfect health I can’t sing. Cathy missed two days of work last week recovering from the flu, and my cold set in on Thursday.

This afternoon I went to work to get caught up, and Cathy did some running around in town. We had a nice dinner at home, and a brisk walk through the neighbourhood after the dishes were done. Yesterday I worked at the farm all day. A friend and his son came over after lunch to help me cut wood. Cathy went to the farmer’s market to stock up on fresh produce and baking. We’ve been eating well this weekend!

Cathy was supposed to go to London on Friday for Herceptin, but she cancelled the appointment because of the wintery weather. She’ll have to make two trips next week, one to get caught up, and another for followup appointments. The weather sounds much better for traveling.

I don’t have much more to say tonight. Quite a few of you have left very thoughtful messages for us today, and we really appreciate you taking the time to remember Hannah on this special day.

Monday, January 28, 2008 9:18 PM CST

Where did the month go? I’ve been meaning to do an update, but we haven’t had a lot of time lately.

Today Cathy wasn’t feeling very well, so she stayed home from work. She doesn’t get sick very often, so she wasn’t very happy. We don’t know what she picked up, but hopefully it doesn’t last long.

We didn’t get much rest on the weekend. After work on Friday we checked out a restaurant in Sarnia called Lola’s. It was pretty funky, and the food was great. I was up early on Saturday to go shopping for vehicles. Later we went to London with Mom & Dad to see a play at the Grand Theatre. Luckily it didn’t snow too much, so we hurried home from London and spent about 15 minutes freshening up before we headed back out again. We picked up a friend and drove down to Wilkesport for a Jr. Farmer event. It was a late night after a long day.

I was up early on Sunday to shovel and plow snow at the church. Cathy cooked up something for the potluck lunch, and she had to leave early for choir practice. After lunch we stayed the annual meeting. Later in the day I picked up a few groceries and did a couple little jobs at the farm, while Cathy made a delicious dinner. It was nice to be home for a meal.

Last weekend I ended up working on Saturday to keep up with the workload at Libro. On Sunday I took Dad to the bush to get some firewood. It was a bit too cold for him, so we made it a quick trip. Two weeks ago we went to the cottage for the weekend. The weather was good for traveling, and we were able to relax for the weekend.

Cathy is watching George Bush deliver his speech tonight, which reminds me of something. If you knew Hannah well, you would know that her favourite doll was named Laura Bush. This doll was actually a Groovy Girl named Penolope, and she was a gift from Hannah’s cousins who lived in Texas. When Hannah received this gift, we mentioned that the doll came from Texas, and Uncle Ernie said “Like Laura Bush”. After that Hannah renamed her Laura Bush. Many nurses and other friends had a chuckle when the met Hannah’s favourite doll, Laura Bush.

Laura went almost everywhere with us. She shared Hannah’s crib most nights, and Hannah held tight to her hair as she slept. We had to take Laura away when Hannah had her bone marrow transplant, because she couldn’t be washed and sanitized properly. While in Toronto we replaced Laura with two homemade dolls that were made by Grandma Shirley. One was blonde and the other brunette, and Hannah called them Uncle Gord and Aunt Susan. Hannah was happy to have these dolls keep her company at night, but she was thrilled when Laura came back to play after her recovery.

When Hannah passed away we decided to leave Laura Bush with her. It wouldn’t be right to leave her alone without her favourite doll. We are quite sentimental, and we have been missing both of them. When we go shopping we always look through the toys to see if we can find a new Laura Bush. We’ve seen lots of Groovy Girls, but we have never seen another like Laura Bush. Just after Christmas, Cathy was shopping at the MCC thrift store in New Hamburg, and came across a small version of Laura. So for $1, we now have a little Laura that sits in our home beside Hannah’s urn. It sure is nice to her home again!

With that, I’ll say good night. Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday, January 6, 2008 2:12 PM CST

The New Year is upon us, and it is time for a website update. Believe it or not, I’m sitting here typing while wearing a Santa hat with flashing red and green lights. A friend bought this hat to amuse Hannah a number of years ago, and it still works. Cathy is busy undecorating the house. My job is to carry the boxes downstairs to be put away. Later today I have some equipment repairs to do at the farm. We’re having a January thaw, so hopefully we can get this job done with no frost-bitten fingers.

I hope our neighbours weren’t watching this morning. A couple of squirrels kept coming to the bird feeders on our back porch. At first we banged on the window, and they scampered away. Then they got braver, so we had to open the patio door and yell at them. Finally I got fed up and went outside to toss a few snowballs at them. I’m sure I looked funny running around tossing snowballs into the trees! I come by this honestly, however. Recently I went to the farm to find my dad’s shotgun out of the gun safe. When I asked why, Mom said a squirrel had been visiting their feeder. Don’t worry, no squirrels have been harmed yet. Dad isn’t quite as fast as he used to be.

So after a confusing week of working every other day, we are back for a full 5 days next week. Oh yes, Cathy has a trip to London scheduled for the end of this coming week, but I’m sure she would rather go to work than go for treatment. Oh well, she will soon be done!

The weather around Christmas time was co-operative, and we traveled to the cottage near Kincardine on Christmas Eve afternoon. We had a nice visit and several delicious meals with most of the West clan, and then headed off to see Cathy’s family in New Hamburg on Boxing Day. Cathy decided to stay for a few days and visit, so I returned home to work the rest of the week.

We celebrated a quiet New Year’s Eve with a good friend in the neighbourhood. No champagne and party favours this year…. but we watched some “redneck” home video show on his satellite dish until the ball dropped at midnight. The next couple days were very snowy, so we didn’t go far. In fact, we even carpooled to work on Jan 2nd because of the heavy snow.

Last night we had dinner with some friends at their farm south of here. They have a 1 ½ year old daughter who was very charming, and we enjoyed watching her play and reading her some stories. We rode there with some other friends from Bright’s Grove. It was nice to catch up with them and talk to their young son. Thanks again for dinner! On Friday night we went to a Sarnia Sting game and watched from a corporate box. It was our first hockey game this season, and turned out quite well with Sarnia winning 6 to 1.

Meeting season is coming up, so we will likely be out for a few evenings over the next month. We would like to go on a trip south some time, but we are too busy at work right now to plan anything. Our bathroom renovations will start soon, now that we have made a few decisions and put things into motion. Hopefully we won’t be without a bathroom for too long…. We could get a little smelly without a bathtub available!

I’ll sign off now, and wish everyone a Happy New Year.

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