Sad news

Part of keeping this blog was to try to keep a record for the kids of our family life as well as keeping family and friends outside Winnipeg in touch with what we're all up to. So, even though most of you already know I feel like I need to record that Sean's dad, Edward O'Hara, passed away on April 6th. Even though we knew he was very sick, we were hoping for the best and were taken by surprise. Sean is still in shock to some degree, as are his mom and sister I think. And, to make it more stressful I was in Paris awhen it happened, so Sean had to get the kids to Hamilton on his own. Thank goodness for Toni who dropped everything, found flights, brought over stew and flew with them to Toronto. Then she went back 2 days later to meet Mom and I and come to the funeral and fly Mom home. And then she came back to Toronto again to fly the kids and I home 2 days after that. I'm sorry she missed the trip to Paris but my family sure appreciated her being here at the time.

The kids were having a tough time with it too, especially Aidan. He's at a tough age. I thought Connor would be the one who was most upset, but of course Connor shows it in different ways. All three were upset, and they were also whisked off to Hamilton to a very busy house full of people they hadn't seen in years (except Nana of course). And Sean was busy with his mom and sister so they spent time with Nicole and her kids and Dan and Tyler - thank goodness everybody stepped in and helped out! It sure wasn't ideal for anyone. I feel terrible being so far away but we couldn't get a flight home. Toni said that everything was overbooked by 10% because of the Pope's funeral but Air Canada sure wasn't very helpful when Sean called them. Anyways, I'm very grateful to everyone who helped with the kids.

The funeral mass was lovely. The priest in Mount Hope is a former Protestant minister who converted. He is married with children and has a psychology degree and does family counselling. I was so impressed with him, he was a wonderful comfort to the family. He is a perfect example of what priests could be if the Church would enter the 21st century. And he really did Mr. O'Hara justice. I really only knew him from one perspective, but Fr. Hampson shared stories that let you see what he was like as a person which he'd learned from talking to the family and friends, as well as from his own friendship with Mr. O'Hara. There were a lot of people at the funeral and Nana will have a lot of support from family and friends.