Update Blog

6 months On this day, six months ago, Nick passed away.   About two weeks later, Matthew and I had to confront the horrific reality of retrieving his stuff from his room in Etobicoke.   Thankfully, Nick’s landlords were wonderful and refunded all of our rent money and even allowed us to return to this room in our own time.   Entering the tiny confines of his space was beyond brutal.   Nick had only moved in there 6 weeks prior, so full of hope for the future and so looking forward to   starting his life, studying at the school and achieving much needed independence from his parents.   Within two short weeks, he made   many friends and clearly relished this opportunity.   Underneath, however, the reality was quite different.   Out of a desire to protect us, Nick did not disclose the fact that he was still experiencing seizures and coughing up blood.   When we arrived on that horrible day in October to collect his belongings, we ...

Straight Outta Humber: https://humberetc.ca/scholarship-created-in-wake-of-humber-students-passing/ Our thanks to Nick's friend (and Humber journalism student) Rachel Taylor for this one.

Vincent, as well as our friend (and Nick's old band-mate) Craig Gignac, have recorded a new version of Nick's song You, Me & Labatt Blue. Now if we can just get Labatt to pay us for this, we'd be able to send a lot of kids to Humber.😀.🐠

“Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.”   Allan Jay Lerner’s lines from Camelot certainly capture the bittersweet reality of our lives now – where there was once so much joy, there is now so much tragedy and heartbreak that is made all the more poignant by the memory of that previous life, that “one brief shining moment” that is now permanently in the past, a past which is receding more and more everyday as it is overtaken by the gloom of our present and future lives.   There is no feeling of closure and I can’t imagine there ever will be. What is worse?   Having had joy and then having it snatched away leaving you with the painful memories of what was or never having had joy at all and not knowing the pain of what was or could have been?   I want to think that it was better to have had that joy, but the sharpness of the pain produced by its absence sometimes makes me think otherwise.  ...

Matt Here. February is almost gone, and it's Tanja's birthday in two days. If you're reading this, please don't even think of wishing Tanja a happy birthday on the 26th (if you'd like to show up with a bottle of wine, that's fine!) But it won't be a happy birthday for Tanja, maybe never again. She was never big on celebrating her birthday to begin with, but this year especially. As Nick's time on Earth recedes into the past, our outlook gets blacker and blacker. Our application for long-term disability, which we'd like to use to bridge the gap between the end of our short-term benefits in April and our desired return-to-work day in September, is awaiting OTIP's adjudication. If they reject our claim, then we'll appeal (and check ourselves into the psych ward if necessary.) I don't think we're in any shape to face the kids at our respective schools. I don't know if we'll be by September, but at least we wouldn't be facing ...

This week last year was one of the worst weeks of my life.   After a shadow showed up on the low-resolution ct-scan Nick received while doing radiation, it was discovered that his cancer had infiltrated his lungs with a vengeance. On February 14, just as he was about to celebrate Valentine’s Day with Alex, we had to break the news that yet again he would need more chemo.   We didn’t tell him that this time the chemo would be of the palliative variety.   That news was saved for an appointment approximately 6 days later when he was told by a doctor who wasn’t his own oncologist, that his cancer had reached the incurable stage.   During this appointment, being the coward that I am, I was doing what I normally do when Nick had to go to   the London Regional Cancer Clinic, I was on the treadmill at Goodlife, where I ran and ran to cope with my overwhelming fear and anxiety about what the results of the visit at our friendly neighbourhood cancer centre would be th...

We've just set up a scholarship fund in Nick's name, for students attending Humber College's Health Science program who have faced (or are currently facing) significant medical challenges. Please click on the link below to check it out.     The Scholarship Link