This Is Dedicated to The Ones I Love…

My dad has always been a charitable kind of guy.  Not only has he contributed to his ‘impoverished’ children (alas…we will never TRULY be off the payroll) he has spent a great deal of his life giving his time and generosity to different charities.  For that, and his successful career, he was made a member of the Order of Canada in the Spring of 2000, an honour that my mom was able to share with him before we lost her a few months later.  To say that I’m proud of him would be a massive understatement.

Last Thursday was the culmination of a crap load of hard work by my dad and many others to fund an expansion to the Wellspring Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook in Toronto.  My dad served as chair of the campaign cabinet, entrusted to raise $5 million dollars and they did.  Last Thursday was the opening of the new facility and it is beautiful!!

The dedication last week was special for another reason too.  My father and step-mother donated personally to the campaign and for that reason,

this room was opened at the Centre.  And it’s beautiful….and peaceful…AND, my mother would be psyched – it has a towel warmer in it…(it’s a spa room).  The pictures don’t do it justice but here’s a flavour..

Each room had different designers who generously worked on the rooms and added their own touches.  From the second I saw my mom’s room, I loved it.  I actually wanted to lie on the therapy bed and close my eyes and pretend I was getting a massage on the beach in Cancun, but I figured that wouldn’t go over well.

After the speeches, my brother and I went back and hung out in the room…and this for me was when the magic happened.  While we were opening doors looking to see if there was a washroom (come on, there was wine!), I said to John that I needed to bring one of my sand dollars back and hide it in the room somewhere to match the beach theme.  Then I opened a door to a closet, and there lying on the floor was a beautiful, framed, perfect sand dollar. 

**for those of you who don’t read every single one of my blogs…WHAT??…you should know that I have a chipped sand dollar permanently tatooed on my neck.  It reminds me of my mom and my childhood and serves as a reminder that life can be beautiful even if it isn’t perfect…**

I ran to my stepmother and just showed it to her.  Her eyes welled up too (our first true ‘bonding’ moment was spent on the beach in Florida when I talked about my mom and we looked for sand dollars) and we raced over to the designers to ask what it was doing in the closet. 

After I showed them my neck, and explained the reason behind the tattoo, they just stared at me speechless.  It turns out that one of the designers had found it on a beach, on a family vacation that they had gone on after getting some bad news of their own.  She had found three and they had become the basis around which the designed the room.  With the rush to finish the room, they had opted to wait to hang them until they were sure where they should be. 

When the night was over, the three of us hugged and had a little cry.  I thanked them for creating such a beautiful – and now to me – magical place.  And they thanked me for ‘bringing meaning to their work and giving them a moment they wouldn’t forget.’  I won’t forget it either. 

And it’s fitting to me that the sand dollars the woman found were perfect…because the room is perfect as was the night. 

*So this is dedicated to the ones I love….thanks Dad & Diana for making that moment happen.*