On Jan. 15/20 I stayed home from work due to the flu I had caught. Huddled under my blanket, I scrolled through the news on my phone. I was alarmed to read a few news articles about people in the province and in Canada who were dying of the flu this winter. Young, healthy people who just suddenly became very ill and couldn't pull through. This sounded alarming to me and given my current state of health - just a little bit extra scary to process. I mentioned this to James and told him it seemed "pretty scary".
The next day, early in the morning, we left for Emo/Fort Frances, ON for Madalyn Grace's memorial service. We took our daughters, Autumn and Elie, along and also gave a ride to Katrina, our niece. Most of James' family was also coming and some of us travelled together. I loaded up on Tylenol and Advil and we prepared our hearts for the grief ahead.
It was very difficult to watch Mike and Jo grieving the loss of their first child. Words really can't describe it. It has scarred them forever and as a family, we felt helpless to stand by and watch but we were glad we could be there to stand with them at least. They buried Madalyn in a local cemetery and we had a short service for her. Our family and Mike's family spent the evening together at Mike's parents. I was feeling so sick and could barely walk but I tried to hide it.
We spent the night at a hotel in Fort Frances. I enjoyed soaking my aching bones and muscles in the hot tub and the girls had fun swimming in the pool. We went home the next day and got home by evening. I was still fighting a fever but thinking I was feeling a little better. The roads had been terribly icy with bad visibility a lot of the way. We were grateful everyone from James' family made it safely home.
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