My Own Calcutta: A Year of Living Generously

Yay! I did it! After years of pushing my manuscript to the backburner, I took the plunge and moved forward. My first book, My Own Calcutta, was recently published on Amazon. Let me share with you the storyline… It’s November 2013. As Rita Jacques hears that a typhoon has devastated the Philippines, she’s once again…

Hiding in the Hydrangeas

This is an updated re-blog on my neighbour, Rocco, who passed away last week from a heart attack. I admit it. When I’m overtired, I want be left alone in my garden. I’ve pretended not to notice Rocco (my elderly Italian neighbour) nearby when I’m busy weeding. He gave me several hydrangea plants two summers…

🎶(Staying) Home for the Holidays!🎶😷

I didn’t feel like decorating for Christmas this year. Usually, I’m gung-ho about it and have our home festive by early December to fully enjoy the season. But this year it just seemed like too much effort. Too much hassle for no visitors to enjoy. The premier of Ontario told us to stick to our…

Thousand Word Thursday #167

This is for healthcare workers . . . you are bighearted and courageous! Remember that! I bought these cyclamen flowers in December 2018. I wanted something small to place inside two mugs to sit near my kitchen sink. A nutcracker mug and a Santa mug. The woman in the Floral Department told me not to…

Random Acts of Kindness

I looked downwards at the man in the wheelchair. He was staring up towards a high shelf in the grocery store. “May I help you?” “Uh . . . I was hoping to get the medium-sized freezer bags. They’re on sale.” “Hmmm, that looks like a challenge.” For him, it would be impossible. For me,…

O Canada!

I admit it. I always tear up a bit when I hear our national anthem played. It wasn’t always this way. It takes leaving the country to see how much pride one has for Canada and Canadians. When I was twenty years old, I backpacked through Southeast Asia. Whenever I crossed paths with someone sporting…

A Nurse’s Instinct

I couldn’t help myself. The nurse in me took over the other day. On my day off.  Nurses often invade other people’s personal space. From stripping a patient to get them into a Johnny shirt to performing procedures on them, it happens all the time. The encounter that day was just a minor invasion, mind…

A Heart of Gold

She’s done so much for others, struggled through more than a person should in life and still manages to keep on keeping on…Sarah-Lynn Ellis has volunteered at Street Help Homeless Centre in Windsor for years. She helps with cooking, serving, cleaning, handing out hygiene packages, washing dishes, sorting clothes, taking out the garbage and yup,…

Apples and Toothless Smiles

  Tendonitis prevented me from serving at the homeless shelter today. So, let me share a tale from last summer. A  sad-looking, older woman named Valerie sat alone at a table. When I smiled at her, she smiled back instantly and beckoned me to come over. She then asked if I had a bag to…

Prayers Answered

Burrrrooomboomboomboom! Burrrrooom! I was totally oblivious to the motorcycle as my husband, Guy and I chatted with a friend in the Canadian Tire parking lot. Guy was more attuned to the sound of the bike racing by us. Of course, he noticed the blur of bike and man. A couple of minutes passed and then my…