• The black iron railing on the concrete steps outside of our first home in Quebec
• “Dog Patrol” a near-daily excursion as Dad would peddle me around on the back of his bike looking for doggies that I could pet
• Washing dishes standing on a chair in the kitchen next to my Mom
• My new baby brother coming home
• Noticing that he was “broken” between his legs while I assisted Mom with a diaper change
• My first amazing experience at school with my Junior Kindergarten Teacher (Mrs. Rheaume, I still think of you often)
• Recording our voice and our home family movies
• Learning to debate at school
• Perfecting how to debate at the dinner table
• Years of summertime joy and crushes and sunburns
• First kiss
• Never wanting to see that guy again… good thing he won’t know I mean him
• Writing my first poem
• Dancing in my bedroom
• Transcribing lyrics from radio music
• Losing my Nanny (maternal and only grandparent)
• My first bra
• My first heartbreak
• Painting
• First “first date”
• First “last date”
• First act of citizenship: I vote
• Being elected at my high school
• Graduation
• An abusive relationship
• University … a procrastinator’s heaven and hell
• Pride + Kraft Dinner VS Logic + Asking for money
  (if you know me, you know which I picked… despite not having any milk)
• Illness and close brushes with despair
• Family love and how the extended family reinforces the troops regardless of the problem, the timing, or the need
• The power of a loved one’s beautiful baby girl
• Smugly taking a job in broadcasting which surely meant that I didn’t need the degree
• A star named after me
• Understanding how much that really meant
• Meeting the son of my parents’ friends “just for coffee”
• Long distance love in denial
• Dropping to my knees in front of him and saying yes
• Moving (for the thousandth time)
• Marrying
• Moving #1001 – but thankfully moving to the “M” section in people’s address books instead of the “V”
• Making babies – the easy part AND the hard part
• New life all around
• The beauty of someone else’s wedding
• Learning what to control and what you cannot control
• Mom’s life ebbing away
• Recovery from loss
• Needing to be loved
• Losing weeks of my life – a small price to pay because I had never had the chance to say “goodbye, how I love you”
• Rebirth with my artificial umbilical cords
• Learning to walk again and to read and write
• Feeling fear often
• My brother, husband and father never leaving my side
• Reaching back to my husband
• Deciding to act the way I felt people wanted me to be
• Changing that decision!
• Making true friends recovering with them in the hospital for more than two months
• Learning many ways to measure distance (inches, kilometers, aeons)
• Remarking which friends have stayed… regardless of my quiet
   *smiling at you with gratitude*
• My sons sharing the experience of being with Mom on the floor (ferociously proud of them now and forever – unless they have behaved unethically or unlawfully you’d be best to complain to someone else)
• My husband carrying his own weight and far too much of mine
• Every one of my stroke steps…

And today?
Another year older!!! Ack!!!

Be well

Jen