Erin's Journals

Just a thought… Life is a constant becoming: all stages lead to the beginning of others. [George Bernard Shaw]

Hello and welcome to a new week. This will be a short journal; I’ve had little success in publishing this for you in the past few attempts from afar, whether Ontario or Mexico. For the third straight Monday I find myself far from home, but at least I’m in the same province!

Rob and I are in Kelowna, BC helping my sister Leslie aid my father in moving from a retirement residence to assisted living. We thought when he moved out of the house he shared with my now-late mom that we managed to purge before we packed; that has turned out to be untrue.

It’s been a very long weekend of going through photos, letters, and so many mementoes of, not only his life, but that of his parents and even his grandparents. I’ve been quietly thrilled to find some of my homemade cards and some letters I wrote to Dad over the years. Many expressed how I missed him when he was away (as an officer in the armed forces). My artwork was heinous, my rhymes were pretty good and it’s nice to know they were treasured. Still, out they went….

Dad, whose mind has been slipping with alarming alacrity over the past year (we can pinpoint two long hospital stays: one with Covid and a severe infection, the second with gall stones and nothing short of neglect that led to his physical deterioration as well over a five-week period) and now we’re holding on to faint hope that he’ll manage to make a life here at his new home where there’s a nurse on call and the possibility of a fuller existence.

He’s his cheery self despite a fall a week ago that is causing him pain and as we try to wean him from my sister’s overnight assistance, we leave tomorrow knowing that he’s in good hands and we’re doing all we can for “dear old Dad.” He’ll forget by next week that Rob and I were here, but we know. And we’ll hope that this new step in his life lasts long and brings him comfort. And that the sister who’s taken on such a heavy load in caring for Dad is able to keep carrying it – for all our sakes.

I’ll be back next week and I promise a video journal. It’s been too long!

Just a thought… A true friend sees the first tear, catches the second and stops the third. [Angelique Arnauld]

Read to the end for a 10% discount at enVypillow.com – our Drift with Erin Davis sleep stories partner.

An early alarm goes off today and I’m back to Guadalajara’s international airport this morning, where the hour-plus long wait to get out after having arrived a week ago Saturday will haunt me for a long time.

If you haven’t entered Mexico, you may not know about their unusual way of letting you in: you gather your luggage (I had none), then get in a Disney World-long snaking line to hand off your customs card and then press a button. If the light is green, off you go; if it’s red, you get to have your luggage screened, opened, etc..

I got to my sister’s about two hours after I was expected; she was still hospitalized with that fractured hip (and immediate replacement), but a friend of hers met me and my cab to takeme into the house – the one that had just been cleaned by her friends (with fresh sheets on beds, etc.) before my arrival.

As I helped Cindy get up and mobile, fed her pills at the right times (not that she and her spreadsheet needed any aid), prepared meals, and helped in the night on her trips to the loo, I was struck by a feeling that will stay with me a long time.

It is this: wherever you are, make a circle of friends and keep them close. I am a hermit by nature; many of my friends are here. Online. You and I may not have met, but you are my friend. When I was stranded in Edmonton for over seven hours back on Nov. 5th, you kept me company on social media. When I was left without luggage for a big event the next day, thanks to the same ill-fated travel experience, you (specifically my “Teri Godmother”) came to my rescue. Further back, when we were struck by the biggest blow a parent can endure, you propped up Rob and me with your kindness and your huge gestures. You have always been my circle.

But Cindy has people she sings with, plays cards with, lunches with daily, goes to theatre and dinner parties with (and sorry for all of the bad grammar there – I’m too wiped out to care right now). These women all came by with cookies, pies, meds, flowers, know-how (an RN changed bandages some days so I didn’t have to), laughter and company. I know she’s in good hands and they’ll be with her now that I’m on my way home today, and with Cindy’s fortitude (Davis Steel may sound like a law firm, but I swear to God it’s in our DNA) she’ll be on stage at that concert two weeks from now, just as she plans. Never bet against Cindy.

I have a few friends on Vancouver Island – maybe three I could hope would be there if I was alone (don’t you dare, Rob) besides Phil and Brooke, of course. But I have to try harder. I have to step outside of my hermit-like existence and crochet a comforter of friends who will be there if I need them, as I would be for them in return.

I’m sure there are many people like me, whose lives are so completely interwoven with that of their partner that they’d be lost if anything altered to remove them.

Cindy’s friends are her sisters. Am I still glad I went down? Definitely. She says she’d have been put in a care home to recover if not for my trip and whatever help I might have been to her. But will those women be there for her in the weeks to come? Again, yes. After the year she’s had, they’ve proven themselves again and again.

I’m grateful, as I know she is, and I can only hope she’ll share this journal with them. Friends in good times are wonderful and easy, but a friend in hard times is a gift whose worth can never, ever be measured. 

I HOPE to have a video journal for you next week, but I leave Friday for four days in Kelowna to help Dad move. So, it may be brief.

Meantime, there is another Christmas story on Drift with Erin Davis, free for you tomorrow (and always) thanks to enVypillow.com with a very sweet and enticing offer from them: go to their website and input the code Drift upon checkout and you’ll automatically get 10% off whatever you purchase there. I just wish they sold pillow speakers too; they’re the perfect Christmas and holiday gift to allow you to Drift off to my podcasts.

This week’s story is Little Gretchen and the Wooden Shoe and, appropriately, given what I’m talking about with you here today, it’s about appreciating what life brings us, even in the hardest of times.

I’ll always be grateful for this connection.

Just a thought… A true friend sees the first tear, catches the second and stops the third. [Angelique Arnauld]

Read to the end for a 10% discount at enVypillow.com – our Drift with Erin Davis sleep stories partner.

An early alarm goes off today and I’m back to Guadalajara’s international airport this morning, where the hour-plus long wait to get out after having arrived a week ago Saturday will haunt me for a long time.

If you haven’t entered Mexico, you may not know about their unusual way of letting you in: you gather your luggage (I had none), then get in a Disney World-long snaking line to hand off your customs card and then press a button. If the light is green, off you go; if it’s red, you get to have your luggage screened, opened, etc..

I got to my sister’s about two hours after I was expected; she was still hospitalized with that fractured hip (and immediate replacement), but a friend of hers met me and my cab to take me into the house – the one that had just been cleaned by her friends (with fresh sheets on beds, etc.) before my arrival.

As I helped Cindy get up and mobile, fed her pills at the right times (not that she and her spreadsheet needed any aid), prepared meals, and helped in the night on her trips to the loo, I was struck by a feeling that will stay with me a long time.

It is this: wherever you are, make a circle of friends and keep them close. I am a hermit by nature; many of my friends are here. Online. You and I may not have met, but you are my friend. When I was stranded in Edmonton for over seven hours back on Nov. 5th, you kept me company on social media. When I was left without luggage for a big event the next day, thanks to the same ill-fated travel experience, you (specifically my “Teri Godmother”) came to my rescue. Further back, when we were struck by the biggest blow a parent can endure, you propped up Rob and me with your kindness and your huge gestures. You have always been my circle.

But Cindy has people she sings with, plays cards with, lunches with daily, goes to theatre and dinner parties with (and sorry for all of the bad grammar there – I’m too wiped out to care right now). These women all came by with cookies, pies, meds, flowers, know-how (an RN changed bandages some days so I didn’t have to), laughter and company. I know she’s in good hands and they’ll be with her now that I’m on my way home today, and with Cindy’s fortitude (Davis Steel may sound like a law firm, but I swear to God it’s in our DNA) she’ll be on stage at that concert two weeks from now, just as she plans. Never bet against Cindy.

I have a few friends on Vancouver Island – maybe three I could hope would be there if I was alone (don’t you dare, Rob) besides Phil and Brooke, of course. But I have to try harder. I have to step outside of my hermit-like existence and crochet a comforter of friends who will be there if I need them, as I would be for them in return.

I’m sure there are many people like me, whose lives are so completely interwoven with that of their partner that they’d be lost if anything altered to remove them.

Cindy’s friends are her sisters. Am I still glad I went down? Definitely. She says she’d have been put in a care home to recover if not for my trip and whatever help I might have been to her. But will those women be there for her in the weeks to come? Again, yes. After the year she’s had, they’ve proven themselves again and again.

I’m grateful, as I know she is, and I can only hope she’ll share this journal with them. Friends in good times are wonderful and easy, but a friend in hard times is a gift whose worth can never, ever be measured. 

I HOPE to have a video journal for you next week, but I leave Friday for four days in Kelowna to help Dad move. So, it may be brief.

Meantime, there is another Christmas story on Drift with Erin Davis, free for you tomorrow (and always) thanks to enVypillow.com with a very sweet and enticing offer from them: go to their website and input the code Drift upon checkout and you’ll automatically get 10% off whatever you purchase there. I just wish they sold pillow speakers too; they’re the perfect Christmas and holiday gift to allow you to Drift off to my podcasts.

This week’s story is Little Gretchen and the Wooden Shoe and, appropriately, given what I’m talking about with you here today, it’s about appreciating what life brings us, even in the hardest of times.

I’ll always be grateful for this connection.

Just a thought… Don’t Stop. Be Leaving. [takeoff on a Journey song, and the perfect door mat for me this week…]

This journal was actually written Friday night when I had a second, so I’ll fill in more details as I experience them!

Well, I can’t quite believe it either, but as you read this, I’m out of the country. Why? Did Rob and I have a fight? Can’t I stand it in beautiful BC? Did I only come home to mess things up, see the kids and grandkids and leave again? If I was on the radio I’d say, “We’ll give you the answer…right after this!”

Um…brief break…SierraSil ad and on we go….LOL

The answers to all of those questions are: NO. In fact, I got home last Wednesday and the house was spotless; Rob had also put up the Christmas tree (lights, bows were on it from last season, but the ornaments will go on when I get a moment), the garage was tidied, there was firewood cut, two new chairs had been assembled (plus he helped upholster some for family), the sheets had been changed, there were roses on the table and steaks ready for dinner and…I can’t even complete the list of all of the things he accomplished. I mean, all of those accomplishments alone would be enough for me to leave town again very soon, but the reason is much more unfortunate.

On Thursday night I got a message from my sister in Ajijic, Mexico (an enclave of mostly American and Canadian citizens in which she’s lived for four years now) that she was in the hospital.

Cindy slipped on a wet sidewalk and went down hard, fracturing her hip and requiring replacement surgery on Friday. It went well, she says, but it’s going to cost her some $10,000 since her lupus precludes her from getting health insurance. Since she’s been alone all this year (yes, that sister with the husband of 40 years who left, and so on) I couldn’t imagine her recuperating alone.

Saturday at 7:30 am I was at Victoria International Airport. AGAIN. But no “wheel of luggage fortune” for me: this time, it was just me and my carry-on. Cindy and I share the same size and I plan to raid her dressers and closet while I’m there.

I flew to Vancouver to catch a 1:30 pm flight to Dallas/Fort Worth, with a 90- minute turnaround to get myself on a flight to Guadalajara, Mexico. From there, a cab took me to Ajijic where friends met and took me to Cindy’s house, where preparations had been made for her homecoming and recovery. She’s fit and young-ish, and she tells me she has a concert booked in three weeks (she sings, plays piano/organ and harp) and if I know Cindy, she’ll try not to let anyone down. We shall see if New Hip Cindy (not New, Hip Cindy LOL) will make it to the performance. I would never bet against her, especially with the year she’s powered through.

There are a lot of things for which to be grateful right now: most of all, that I have the resources and time to be able to fly out at nearly a moment’s notice, to help a family member. Rob and I are already booked for early December to fly to Kelowna to help get Dad’s new place ready for his arrival. He’s STILL in hospital there, so we need to get him some rehab quickly before he completely forgets how his legs work.

The whole coven of sisters – even from afar – is working to make it happen and we’re all happy with the new place he’s going. Best of all, so is he! Something else for which to be grateful: the temp these days where I’m heading are in the upper 20s Celcius. So that’s a definite plus.

That is quite a bit of news for you for now – sorry I didn’t have time to shoot a video journal, but I know you’ll understand.

In the meantime, thank you for being here. Another new Christmas-flavoured story drops tomorrow on Drift with Erin Davis and yes, I’ll post pics at FB and on Instagram if you care to see what it’s like in Ajijic (pronounced ah-hee-HEEK). It’s my first trip here.

Hasta La Vista, Baby….E.

Just a thought… Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then listen for the answer. [Ed Cunningham]

Welcome to a new week and almost the second half of November! You may have noticed there’s no video version of the journal today. I’ll tell you why: first, you saw enough of me last week!

Between the hotel room video I shot at 3:20 am on Sunday that ended up on CBC news(!) about the WestJet computer disaster that left me without a suitcase and my clothes/makeup for the Monday event I was hosting for the entire day…to the CTV appearance Thursday on The Social, I think you’ve seen quite enough of this face. (And that’s not even counting the ribbon cutting and official opening last Wednesday night for Markham Stouffville Hospital’s spectacular Breast Health Centre for my friend Allan Bell. I’ve been helping raise money for this for years and it was an emotional, joyful night.)

Those appearances ended up being quite a case of both ends of the spectrum, too: from almost no makeup at all on that Sunday morning clip (after being up for 24 hours) to having what many said was just too much makeup on The Social, as I say, you’ve seen enough of me. (I didn’t do my makeup but can understand people’s comments. Ah well. Unfortunately, I can’t have the amazing Christine Calder, who did Wednesday’s faces, for everything!)

If you didn’t get to see the 20 minutes or so during which I was guest host of the popular daytime TV show, the link is here. We had a lot of laughs and I apologize publicly here to my sister Heather (as I have personally) for making an easy joke at her expense. I love her, and my apology has, I swear, nothing to do with the fact that I will be seeing her and another sister in a few weeks when we go to Kelowna to move Dad’s things into another residence.

As I write this, I am in my current happy place which is – who knew? – Port Stanley, Ontario, on the shores of Lake Erie. Lisa Brandt came to the GTA to take me from the event in Markham to CTV the next day downtown, and then to her place, about a two-and-a-half hour drive away. I was almost catatonic with exhaustion and relief during the trip.

But I’m fully recuperated now. I’ll stay here in the lap of comforting friendship with her and husband Derek until early Wednesday when I spin the wheel of airplane fortune again and fly home. This time, hopefully no hiccups. You know where to follow me (Facebook.com/erindavispage or @erindavis on Twitter; @erindawndavis on Instagram) if there are any more adventures to report on the way.

We’ve relaxed, we’ve shopped, we’ve dined and we’ve laughed, as well as prepared the first few episodes of our new podcast, Gracefully and Frankly. I promise to keep you posted, not only on when it’ll drop, but how to listen to a podcast; many folks think that my video journal (or “vlog”) is a podcast. It’s not. My sleep stories, Drift with Erin Davis, are. There’s a world of difference and perhaps you still haven’t listened to a podcast. It’s as simple as clicking here. I promise once you do, it’s life-changing. No more commercials or annoyances; you listen when you want to what you want.

Oh, and I hope you heard Mike Cooper’s good-bye on Saturday during his Coop’s Classics radio show. Truly the end of an era, he didn’t want to make a big deal of it, as he had already had a farewell party when he left our partnership back in 2016. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see Mike this visit because he was flying out while I was flying in, but as the old song goes, “We’ll meet again…don’t know where, don’t know when….” And we will.

It’ll be nice to be home Wednesday evening, but right now I’m happier than I’ve been in months just being with my soul sister Lisa again. She’s someone with whom I can talk freely. She knew and loved Lauren, she knows and doesn’t judge me, and always gives me the right amount of support, honest judgment and well-timed kicks in the backside.

Who could ask for more?

I’ll say good-bye here for now and promise you a new video journal next Monday; ’til then, have a gentle week and enjoy a new seasonally sweet Drift story tomorrow.