Hi there. Off we go to Victoria’s sweet, light-filled airport: today (as of 5 am – ugh – did I ever really get up this early, or earlier?) we fly to Toronto to begin nearly two weeks of meetings, socializing, combinations of the two and, yes, even some work! As luck would have it, I was hired to emcee a day of events for the Canadian Real Estate Association in Ottawa next Sunday. And so our travels will take us there, which just happens to be where a certain three-and-a-half year old boy is living with his folks. We cannot wait! For today, though, it’s flying, renting a car, visiting with good friends and celebrating Robbie.
 
Today, Rob’s having his “Beatles” birthday. Yes, my husband (who, I will point out is 9 years older than I) is going to be asking if I’ll still need him and will I still feed him now that he’s…a new age. He doesn’t take kindly to birthdays – despite being grateful for each one, as life teaches us to do – so this may be the last one we actually “celebrate.” I hope to have some pictures and stories to share with you later in the week or perhaps even next week when we catch our collective breath and are able to do journals that demand just a bit more time and work.
 
We’ll be staying in a few hotels, but mostly other people’s homes. Only one (my pal Lisa’s) has a studio, so I may borrow her facilities to do my audio journal. Or, heck, maybe she and I will do another one together!
 
While we’re in the air, we’ll be preparing for tomorrow’s first big meeting at HarperCollins. Of course, I’ve been in the caring and gentle hands of senior vice president Iris Tupholme since the start of this great adventure in December 2016. But we’ll be discussing layout, cover and, yes, the title. 
 
Here’s where I need your opinion and I will try not to sway you with what I think; I’ll try to give you a little background as we go, though.
 
In our home, the working title of this book due out next February, is Mourning Has Broken. A play on words, I’ve spelled mourning with a U for a particular reason: of course, it means that the sadness has come to an end. While that may still be blind optimism on some days, it is also meant to convey that the mourning can be broken; there can be hope and joy again. It’s what we’re living for and hopefully what the book is about, at its heart.
 
However, there’s discussion, too, of calling it Morning Has Broken like the Cat Stevens song of the 1970s. (If you aren’t familiar with it, it has a hymn-like feel to it and, yes, we sang it at Folk Mass in church when I was a teen. It fit perfectly.) Morning in this case could well refer to the thirty-plus years that I began my day – and if I’m lucky, yours too – and how that forged the connection that would one day be the source of support and wisdom and kindness that Rob and I would come to need desperately. It could also refer to my mornings having been broken to the point that I couldn’t keep doing the wakeup show that I loved so much. Hmmm. So many layers, right?
 
Before we choose a title (with the likely parenthetical title A Mother’s Journey Through Grief) I wanted to hear your thoughts. After all, this should be something easy to remember and that makes sense. And goodness knows you’ve been a part of so much of this entire process. If you could – since I’m having such email trials (which I mentioned here yesterday) – please use the Facebook page on which this question is posed. Again, here is the question: Mourning Has Broken or Morning Has Broken? And if you have a better title idea, fire away! 
 
Have a good day and thanks for coming by. We’ll be back with you here tomorrow and I will try to remember to change the “time zone” setting in my posts before then!