Gordon
Hi Gordon,
It's Maggie here, your talkative Belgian teenage daughter that kept talking like a megpie. Yes I remember well that you nicknamed me Maggie. And the music I listened too, that "huckleberry stuff" (cfr the Cranberries). I wasn't too much a fan of your "blood & gut" movies, neither of the line of cowboy boots lined up at the back door. You told me that I might as well dip my finger tops in the nail polish since I painted them so blurry out of line. You were absolutely right. I don't apply nail polish anymore because it doesn't look like anything.
We got along well. You mocked me a lot but I tried to return the teasings with the same sense of humor. I told you to dress up a little more when you got visitors to make the occasion more special...you were shocked by the idea. I invited you to visit the historic cities in Belgium to get some more culture but they'd probably bore you incredibly.
No you didn't need old buildings but the wild nature. You told me about your hunting trips with your horses deep in the Canadian forests. You showed me a frozen cougar in the freezer at work from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. Last visit in June we discussed the itinerary of your trip through the Yukon where you stranded after weeks of driving in the wilderness at a few kms from the Arctic Ocean because the last river crossing was still frozen. You took me on my one and only fishing trip on Kootenay Lake where I caught a salmon trout which we canned half and shipped to Europe for my parents to taste my fish. You took me gold panning in the river, finding gold dust. We drove up logging roads up on Goat Mountain. You've enriched my experience of life in Canada so much and made it more versatile.
We got along well. You mocked me a lot but I tried to return the teasings with the same sense of humor. I told you to dress up a little more when you got visitors to make the occasion more special...you were shocked by the idea. I invited you to visit the historic cities in Belgium to get some more culture but they'd probably bore you incredibly.
No you didn't need old buildings but the wild nature. You told me about your hunting trips with your horses deep in the Canadian forests. You showed me a frozen cougar in the freezer at work from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. Last visit in June we discussed the itinerary of your trip through the Yukon where you stranded after weeks of driving in the wilderness at a few kms from the Arctic Ocean because the last river crossing was still frozen. You took me on my one and only fishing trip on Kootenay Lake where I caught a salmon trout which we canned half and shipped to Europe for my parents to taste my fish. You took me gold panning in the river, finding gold dust. We drove up logging roads up on Goat Mountain. You've enriched my experience of life in Canada so much and made it more versatile.
We were together the last time previous June. We talked about your ongoing heart issues and the pills you had to take. You told it all with the same no-nonsense attitude like always. The news was not new. You were you...you never seem to change ever. We laughed because the boys had found a little stool that they turned into a drum and they gave an entire show. They also adopted the dog if they would have had the chance.
One last group picture before we left...We didn't know it would truly be our last group picture.
Your heart failed, your body gave up Sunday, alone in the hospital.
Thank you Gordon. I'll drink a Kookanee beer to you as soon as I can get my hands on one. Cheers.
Reminders from our visits in 2015 and 2011
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