Gone. Our loving, caring, Canadian friends. The bells play for Nova Scotia. More tears will fall as it sinks in what happened.
When I walked toward home that morning one long sleep ago, after a grueling double shift at the hospital that started a day before, I heard the news.
I am a nurse, scribing an ocean away from home. I work for a humanitarian civil society group that does only one thing, helps women and children and their families
by Melissa Hemingway
As I walked in dead silence toward my rented room, in rare clean mountain air, not a vehicle was within earshot.
My mind flashed back to clubbing on Barrington Street in Halifax and driving south along the coast to my favourite lighthouse. Then I realized, with what I am doing with my life, I may never see Nova Scotia again. Farewell, Nova Scotia
I hate guns so much it didn’t sink in, it crashed in. A more blinding blurriness hit hard after a day. I already was numb from working intense shifts.
I hate guns.
A special patient has died in the wee hours. It was the father of a friend. I had to explain to children waiting in the parking lot. They were not allowed inside. The fight had ups and downs. The last downturn was the end. Others died during the day. I had asked about a sister nurse, my supervisor gave me that look and gently shook her head.
As I walked I am exhausted. My face hurts. The breeze hurts my face. That never happened before. Nothing is as it was. But the sunrise is coming and it looks like it will be beautiful coming up over the mountains to the East. I would welcome sunshine.
Heather O’Brien was a nurse for 17 years. Kristen Beaton, worked for the same group, the Victorian Order of Nurses. Gone.
A teenaged violinist who had been entertaining locked down Canadians on Facebook.
All of our hearts are broken. The last sweeper flight to take stranded Canadians home has left today. I will stay and support my patients. Every life is precious. I can’t waste 24 hours in an airplane.
Lisa LaFlamme on the CTV web page was explaining who had died. I thought she was fighting back tears. I heard the pain in her voice. OMG I felt her pain. She interviewed some family members. Then I felt my pain and realized I have been numb since February since coming here from China.
I thought of those children in the parking lot to whom I had tried to explain why papa died. I didn’t fight the tears. I cried.
How can we explain these times to the children.
What do we tell the children?
‘They are still with us,
because love is that one thing,
that special super power thing, that can last forever.’
A Nova Scotia Canadian squirrel photographed in a park near Halifax in 2005 by our editor. Photo Credit: Micheal John / FPM.news Photo Art/Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine
I fear we can’t explain.
But Japanese Art Director Rosa Yamamoto knew the answer. She said “What do we tell the children? We must say, ‘They are still with us, because love is that one thing, that super power special thing, that can be forever,” she softly spoke into our digital face-time.
Forever Love
I played with my landlord’s kids. They asked me about my eyes and I said I was tired. They said, “We love your friends who died.”
She was ten. She knows everything but is too afraid to ask for details. What is she afraid of? The answers.
As I walked back to work at the hospital a soldier with a big gun came walking across the street toward me. My hospital badge had dangled out of view beside my right breast so I held out the clear plastic bag of my hand-washed scrubs and said, “I am going to work.” I found my badge and held it up.
He stopped in his tracks, and quietly said, “thank you”, and signalled ‘stand-down’ to the other soldiers.
Ahhhh. It’s all too much craziness.
I decided then that I would write to you and tell you that wherever you are, whatever you feel, in case you didn’t know,
it’s OK to cry,
and forever love our missing friends,
our so many missing friends.
Japanese Classic. “Forever Love”
Rosa Yamamoto of / Feminine-Perspective Magazine chose this beautiful song to help explain it all to the children. Forever love, with love to Canada from Rosa in Japan.
I’ll never walk alone again, the winds of time are too strong.
Ah, it’s that what hurts you, which you’ll have to live with…
Ah, this tight embrace, and this burning, unchanged heart.
In this ever changing time, love will never change.
Will you hold my heart? Stop flowing tears.
All of my heart is broken….
Forever love, forever dream
Only flowing emotions, bury this intense,
trying, meaningless times.
Oh tell me why … all I see is blue in my heart.
Will you stay with me? Wait until after the wind passes,
all my tears are still flowing…
Forever love, forever dream Stay with me like this.
Hold my trembling heart in the dawn.
Oh stay with me…
Ah, everything good seems to be ending,
in this unending night.
Ah, what else would you lose if nothing at all matters.
Forever love, forever dream, stay with me like this.
Hold my trembling heart in the dawn.
Oh will you stay with me… Until the wind passes,
stay with me again.
Forever love, forever dream, I’ll never walk this path.
Oh tell me why, tell me true, teach me how to live.
Forever love, forever dream, within flowing tears
Bright seasons will forever change again and again ….
forever love…