A Post from Tammy's Husband - Dave

This is not an easy post to write, however, I thought it was the right thing to do.  Tammy passed away on Friday. October 22nd, 2021.  As you could probably tell in her most recent posts, she was doing the very best she could battling pancreatic cancer for 18 months.  She passed peacefully knowing that she led a very full life even though it was not as long as we all would had hoped.

In talking with all of her family, friends and colleagues, the word "genuine" has come up regularly.  That most certainly describes Tammy perfectly.  While she did not talk much to me about her BLOGGER friends, I secretly would read her posts out of curiousity.  It became very evident that she had many close relationships with many of you.  

We will all miss her personality, character and sincerity.  Buddy and I will have our memories and pictures that captured our happiness together as a family.  

Thanks to each of you who were her friend.  In her memory, I've attached a video I made for her Celebration of Life.  I will keep this BLOG open for any of you who wish to visit it.

Midsummer Checkin

 Yes, I am still here - enjoying life with my family and my dog.  Life has been treating me well, we've had a lovely summer to date with lots of visits to the ocean and together time.

When I last blogged we were looking forward to a weekend away at Quadra Island which is a short drive and ferry ride away but sometimes seems like you are on a different planet due to the complete tranquility.  We watched magical sunrises and sunsets from our tiny one room cabin right on the ocean.  We were experiencing the tail end of the heat dome (30-33 degrees celcius) when we got there but it cooled a tiny bit.  Even so we had to be careful to not get too much sun.  Fortunately from the bed in the cabin we could watch the whole world go by on the ocean.

The owner lived next door and was a wonderful host.  She has these massive Costa Rican rhubarb plants on the hill behind her house - unfortunately they aren't edible, just decorative.

June Checkin

 Well, another month has gone by and it's been busy around here.  We've been busy enjoying life.  We've had 2 visits from kids (essential according to my Dr) and have had lots of ocean visits and been gardening.  Here are some pics from the last month:

May Check-in - Living The Good Life

I took an unplanned blog break for no apparent reason.  One day I woke up and decided that the only way I was going to be able to get more steps and increase my health stamina was to walk more and spend less time on the computer.  So that is what I have been doing, enjoying life along the way.  Chemo takes a lot out of you and now that I am no longer doing chemo I've slowly been regaining my health.

I've been taking walks, going to the ocean, planting flowers, doing household projects, doing more housework again (and happy to do so!), and cooking.  Most days I can average 3000-5000 steps before I run out of energy as the chronic fatigue still lingers.  Life is good right now and I am trying to enjoy every moment of every day.  Life in pictures from the last month:

Wings

Recently we've added a little decoration to our home.  We bought a couple of paintings which I will share another day as don't have photos yet.  We bought these big wooden wings for over our bed - I love them.  They came from a store in a nearby town that I had liked their Facebook page and they are really good at updating it with things from their shop.  Last weekend hubby drove there and bought these and a painting.  Our walls have been pretty bare since we painted the inside of our open concept house waiting on the right art.  Angel wings are not everyone's thing, they certainly aren't usually mine but I love these and they look great over the bed at 2 feet tall and 1.5 feet wide.

My Happy Place

 Thursday we had to run some errands with Mom (dentist) and we had to do our preordered grocery pickup.  The day was stunning.  It looks warm but is only about 5 degrees Celcius near the water and about 9 degrees by our house.  On the way home, we stopped at the Marina, my happy place.  It is so peaceful and beautiful.  There is always an eagle on guard on top of someone's boat and the views beautiful as we have snow-covered mountains in the background then our valley then the ocean.

Snow!

So over the weekend we got 3 days worth of snowstorm which dropped about a foot altogether.  Hubby was so sore from shovelling the sidewalks and our driveway.  Usually I am able to help him.  Fortunately the big melt is on now and it is raining which takes it away much faster, hopefully by the end of the upcoming weekend most of it will be gone.

Buddy - Cuteness overload

 

Buddy is such a joy in our lives.  A day doesn't go by without him making us smile.  The photo above was taken as hubby was rubbing Buddy's tummy and stopped.  He got "the look" like "why did you stop?".

To The Ducks

 Sunday the sun was shining.  I was feeling better than usual and decided that I needed fresh air and was going to attempt a walk with Buddy and Hubby.  Both times when I was in the hospital in December and January I visualized being able to someday walk again with my hubby and my dog.  It was something to hang on to when I felt at my absolute worst.  It came true on Sunday.  This is the first time I have left the house since January 8th when I got out of the hospital for my pneumonia.

This and That

 

I managed to win the bid on a large lot of books for Mom to read on our Facebook bidding site.  I have an inability to read right now due to chemo brain - likely when my last 5 chemo sessions are over I will be able to read again at some point but I read 3 pages and there is zero retention.  Mom is a voracious reader and down to her last couple of books so this lot for $8 should keep her in reading for a while.