Goodbye to a lovely father

Photo composite by: Lorne Coulson, Winnipeg

Six days ago, our wonderful father, Bill Burns, passed away peacefully at the Riverview Health Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was in his 78th year - that's the way he quoted his age. Dad's first cancer was prostate, but it spread over the 13 years since his operation. I guess we were lucky, but I don,t feel so lucky today. I know, I know, time will heal this wound too, but we're still allowed to wallow for a little while yet.

Here's the link to his obit: http://www.passagesmb.com/obituary_details.cfm?ObitID=161536

I will miss this face:

I took the gigantic step of launching a blog because I am not a fan of Facebook, but I do believe in the advantages of cyber-social networking. So here it is. My first attempt. I vow to maintain the blog, not daily, but at least once every two weeks. We'll see if I have more success at following through than I do with other personal challenges (i.e. New Year resolutions). I imagine the only people that will be remotely interested in this blog ill be my relatives, as following my father's memorial service I made a promise to myself that I would keep the lines of communication open. As our parents age, the inevitable is really happening, and someday there won't be the parental link. Our generation has to keep things going.

First step? Thanking all of you who made the trip to the 'Peg for his service. From West to East,

Stevie & Fraser McDowell Saanich and Coquitlam respectively; Douglas Campbell and Douglas McKeag, Calgary; Dougal Clark and Pamela Campbell, Toronto; Cathy Campbell and hubby, Mike Quinn, Collingwood, ON; Ashley Wright, the Nation's capital; Elizabeth Wright, Halifax, NS, and lastly, our zany uncles, our father's brothers, John from Langley BC and David from Palmerston, Ontario. All of you, thank you. I know you feel the loss too.

John, Bill, and David Burns, August, 2010

I must warn you; our life is pretty average - some might say it is mundane. Our challenges with teenage boys are standard: eye rolling when asked to do homework, attention span of a gnat UNLESS it is some form of electronic amusement, among others. Maybe I'll share, but I bet few people are interested, unless each post ends in a fail-proof solution. So I'll just post photos like this one:

That brings my first post to a close. I "follow" a couple posts, and many of them centre on cooking. In the spirit of sharing food news, tonight's menu is, Shake and Bake Chicken and Sweet Potato fries. (All the other blogs are much more gourmet, but I really like Shake n' Bake!)