Goodbye 2019, Hello 2020


A Reflection on 2019

I realize that this is a bit late, but life gets in the way. 2019 was a year. It was a really hard year with loss, but also a great year filled with love.

In January 2019, my boyfriend and I went to Quebec City for our 4 year anniversary. It was cold, but it’s a magical little place. There’s so much history and the buildings are beautiful.

In June 2019, my aunt (my mom’s older sister) lost her battle with cancer. It was really hard for my family – especially my mom. She fought bravely and did she sure put up a fight. A couple weeks later, at the most, our cat also passed away from cancer. So much attention was focused on my aunt, that we did not notice the lump at first on our cat. Needless to say, it was a really hard month. It took a long time for us to heal. We still have a long way to go. At least there’s comfort knowing that they’re in a better place and that they had people waiting with open arms for them on the other side. May they rest in peace.
Summer 2019, my dog, Skyler, started going to rehab. She is epileptic and something happened (we don’t know if it was a seizure or meds) where she was left unable to walk. I did some research and got referred to a physio facility for pets and she’s made a lot of progress. Trust me, carrying a 98 pound dog around is hard work. And painful.




In September 2019, my boyfriend and I went to Halifax, NS. Our happy place. Unfortunately, when we were leaving, they were experiencing a very bad hurricane. It was such a stressful trip, but it turned out amazingly. Halifax recovered very quickly and it was almost as if nothing had happened. One evening, we went to Peggy’s Cove to watch the sunset. If you’ve never been there, I highly suggest you go. My grandma would say that it’s nothing special there. It’s just a lot of rocks. To me, it’s beautiful. There’s nothing like sitting on the rocks and looking out into the open water. It’s like endless possibilities. Watching the sunset and listening to the waves crash against the rocks. Honestly, it’s bliss.

My boyfriend led me to a secluded spot amongst the rocks, where there was an opening and all you saw was the water and the purple-pink sky. I don’t want to go into too much detail because it’s a moment that I want to keep, but it was there that he asked me to marry him.

Of course I said yes.






Shortly after we got back from our trip, we headed to North Bay, ON to see Christina marry the love of her life. It’s amazing to see your friends celebrate their love.

In December 2019, we adopted a kitten from a rescue agency. A beautiful and very rambunctious girl, named Emma. Which we quickly changed to Noel. I adopted her for my mom because it was such a hard year for her and my mom constantly said how much she missed having “her baby”. So I talked to my dad about it and surprised my mom. There was a lot of happy tears and hugs. It was a really nice moment and it meant a lot that I could make my mom happy, and also rescue the life of a kitten.


I’m so happy to say that Skyler has started losing weight and walking around again. She still needs some assistance and she is still a bit wobbly, but I can’t even tell you how much it means to have her moving around again. It was so stressful having her not be able to move around. I had so many anxiety attacks over it. I am so grateful for the team that works with her. They are so knowledgeable and kind and I can’t say enough good things about them.

I’m excited to see what 2020 will bring. I hope it brings love and a lot more happiness than 2019.
To whoever is reading this, I wish you the best year yet.