It has been quite an emotional week. I am sharing the events of it here of a wedding and a death because I know many in the xanga community have also faced life and death situations, joys and challenges within their own families or close friends. It is my hope that you will find some encouragement, peace and solace in knowing that your own experiences are not isolated or solitary....the following is a combination of several friends and family.
Our family has been looking forward for many months to the celebration for our youngest daughter, Amelia, 29, as she wed her chosen Sean, last Friday and Saturday in Vancouver.
Much anticipation of the joy and celebration as many came from near and far.
It was a fabulous wedding weekend 
including:
- After the makeup and hair
early in the afternoon
family and the bridal party met at a coffee shop
for a unique encounter between bride and groom. - Friday night Nuptial High Mass with all the smell and bells...A great service followed by a reception
with friends and family in the church hall. - On Saturday, potluck with more friends and family took place in Port Moody Old Mill Boathouse
where Amelia and 3 others from her WVU rowing team donned their spandex, borrowed a shell for 4, and went for a row.Amelia and former rowing team mates went out for a row.. had WVU in Morgantown West Virginia on a rowing scholarship for 4 years....primarily on an 8 woman team (2005) Strong friendships were built and four of her team mates were able to come to the wedding....so they went rowing together again.
But with this joyous news, we also had to share some very sad news with the sudden passing of our oldest daughter, Shaunnie Rebecca, 31, on Sunday morning, 
the 23rd in her sleep. If you had ever met Rebecca, she had a vibrant, strong willed, and creative personality. She has also lived with mental illness for at least 10 years, and this past summer was particularly difficult. Her death was unexpected, and brings grieving to our family.
Only 25 months apart, Amelia 
and Rebecca 
were as younger siblings, 
each other's constant companions, sometimes best buds and other times not.
Both pursued sports ( one year between bingos and driving for soccer, swimming and downhill ski racing we were very busy!!) and university. Rebecca was very talented in fashion design, in Human Ecology, & on her own, putting on a modelling show several years ago at the Edmonton Armoury and when about 8, made Amelia lie down on brown paper to trace an outline for sewing a princess dress. Pioneer Ranch Camps has also played an important part with both young women from Amelia's involvement with Senior Girls to Rebeccas time as staff at Sundre, life guarding for junior camps. She was a focused hard worker, working to meet deadlines with her University and personal projects in the face of paralyzing adversity. Honest, she did not held back the embarrassing elements in her struggles to grapple with life’s issues...resource to youth and the inner city folk who found themselves in difficult circumstances.Words to describe her: Determined, Honest, Funny, Hurtin’ and Searching.
On Sunday the 30th, we had our second service, a Requiem Mass 
for our eldest daughter Shaunnie Rebecca. We, friends and family, celebrated her life this afternoon; In this, we also remembered our eldest son and his young family.After the service, we did a typical Rebecca thing.... we went to a local pub by the church, had a couple of pitchers of beer, told stories, traded fond memories, and had some laughs before we went on our international and interprovincial ways.
Is the grieving and celebration process over? 
No it has really only just begun.
I personally struggle with my role as a mother of an adult daughter with mental illness and my professional role as a social worker who has worked in the field.Maintaining the boundaries between the personal and the professional is not easily done On both sides of the family, we each have a sister with a history of mental illness, who as adults were very dependent on their elderly mothers and this was a pattern I was determined to break. In recent months, I had to step back my involvement and contact with Rebecca while she was in treatment, and now she is gone! Was that the right decision? Did she know how much I loved her but could not cope with some of the other stresses?
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams was a favorite children's book and Amelia chose this passage to honour her sister...
" Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. " It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long.long tim, not just to play with,but REALY loves you then you become real".
" Does it hurt? " asked the Rabbit 
" Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always being truthful. "when you are real you don't mind being hurt".
An old blue metal was tub great spot for pansies beneath my cedar trees and put my lettuce and herbs in front....veggies, flowers and dogs all a balance in my yard.With hot muggy days and frequent thunderstorms
the dogs have found their spot underneath my garage.
mark the passage of the summer in what is in bloom and now it is the lilies
and recently had to cut back some roses and delphiniums,
but always enjoy fresh lettuce, tomatoes and herb for a salad.
lies the small, bustling town of Frank, Alberta, nestled on the floor of a deeply-glaciated valley. Looming menacingly nearby is Turtle Mountain. Also nearby is a scene of a destruction of such magnitude that it has never been equaled! 
Frank Slide disaster was the largest mining accident in the history of Alberta.
and Blue lupines 
What can I say expect seemed like at least 500 meters of fencing with baseball caps in the top of each post.
.great for fence posts as seen here on ranch just south of Longview..
Nanuq curious about our stop
in Cochrane AB... well developed older downtown area
A number of children wanted to pat dogs and I said eat your cones first!
....wishing my French was much better, but great time away, including a visit to a Benedictine Monastary
...St. Benoit du Lac where attended an 11 AM Saturday chanted and sung Mass......
founded a monastery overlooking Lake Memphremagog. The modern Saint-Benoît-du-Lac Abbey, designed by Dom Bellot, pays tribute to the harmony of natural geometric forms and makes splendid use of multicoloured bricks. 
Many of the monk's prayer meetings are sung in Gregorian and Latin chant....here are some of the lovely photos....love the mosaics and archways and 
Also the monks make wine and apple cider,
many different jams and cheeses, supported by orchards and dairy farm.
Pink blossoms from crab apple tree..
....also have some white Evans cherry blossoms.......
and first tulips! 
Spring flowers,
backyard pool, 
and visiting cat,
exploring cemetaries 
and wonder about the history & stories of the area. On Saturday 
helped with 45 cases done of 2010 vintage from
oak barrels & 
need to sit at least another year in the bottles! 
Sunday drove up to Napa valley
for both champagne tasting and excellant brunch.Love the drplets here on the roses
and imagining days to come this is what I find.....
irises my favorite spring time flower, 
yellow and golden poppies....geraniums 
in beds and pots.... 
my crab apple and Evans cherry tree in bloom....
white roses or wild Alberta pink ones.....an extended weekend on the west coast and 
a morning bike ride has given me hope of warmer days to come!
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