JoAnne in S Canada

I briefly met JoAnne while staying at the King Hotel in Kingsville, Ontario. She was a rural woman who had recently moved back to her childhood home and remodeled it with her second husband. She had a career as an Administrative Assistant at a fire department. She spoke of her two grown daughters, her mother who had moved into a condo, and how she juggled giving energy to her mom, her husband, her girls, and their children. She didn’t speak of herself except to say that she loved being back in the small town where she was raised. She was soft spoken, interesting, and very respectful of her husband.

Katie in S Canada

We stopped at a lavender farm called North 42 and as we checking out, another man and woman were also leaving. The woman told me I needed to buy a larger bag of lavender and buy little bags to make my own sachets. We connected through laughter and she shared she was a survivor; six months cancer free. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012 and she called her husband of one year a miracle, her lifeline. She was positive, grateful, and humorously strong. I will think of her every time I smell my calming lavender.