So, it looks like I missed a couple days. You’re probably not waiting for me to start making excuses, but I have some! Wednesday was especially busy for me. I had to picket my workplace in the morning, pick up my partner from a procedure at the hospital in the afternoon, attend a Green Party meeting in the evening, and then later in the evening head over to a local French restaurant to celebrate the birthday of a dear friend. Evidently, a full day.
And yesterday—I had all this work to catch up on in the morning, picketing in the afternoon, and then I made dinner and had to polish my dress shoes for today. Hopefully that’s enough to satisfy you!
But the sad thing is, this means I only made it a week before failing in my blog-a-day goal for October.
The good thing is it doesn’t matter!
Today was a weird day. I attended the memorial of a colleague in Victoria. I woke up extra early, got myself ready, ironed my shirt and pants, and walked over to the home of one of the directors in my division so she could drive us to the ferry and then to the church. I’m on strike and she’s in management, so I hadn’t seen the her in a minute, but it was nice, despite the reason, to spend some time together. We picked up another colleague on the ferry.
The service was beautiful. I’m not religious, but it was held in a church so there was Christian music and some praying, and to finish the day, the pastor of the church gave a lengthy sermon-like talk that I’m sure is common for these kinds of things. He did start by saying “I’m not going to keep you long,” which often seems to be a lie, no matter who’s saying it.
It was moving listening to my former-colleague’s husband talk about her. I realized that I don’t know my coworkers all that well at the end of the day. She left four kids. Her oldest, only a teenager, gave a really moving tribute to her mum.
A number of my colleagues are based in Victoria or elsewhere on the island, so I got to see some old friends too. It’s perhaps the only positive aspect of a funeral—getting to spend time with friends and family that you might not see often otherwise. Sometimes the food is really good too.
I’ve been to three services this year, all for people who I knew and wanted to honour, but who also lived in my periphery. It makes me realize how lucky I am that my family is healthy. But also, it makes me think about how fragile we all are. It doesn’t take much more than a moment to change your life forever. And then, once it’s all done, there’s nothing you can do. Nothing you can take back, or contextualize, or add nuance to. Nothing you can apologize for.
No more opportunities to say I love you, you matter to me, I care about you.
I guess it’s the kind of thing that everyone knows, but it’s important to be reminded now and again about what really matters.