Good-bye My Love

A week ago, Friday, my sweet husband, Dave, took his last breath and passed away.  He was not only a wonderful husband but my soul mate, clay mate and best friend.

For the more than 30 years we have been married, we have done so much together -- we have worked side by side, traveled and just enjoyed life.  As Dave has said, "we have laughed, loved, cried -- but mostly we have laughed."

He was my biggest fan and supporter in most everything I did.  He appreciated the clay mainly through me but later decided to play with it a bit too.  He mainly preferred to just help whenever I needed it -- no matter what the task.

Dave playing with mica powders

Our largest project we would work on together was making lots of salmon beads for the huge salmon festival.  There is a large spawning ground for the Sockeye Salmon where we live and every forth year is the "dominant" run where there are the largest amount of salmon that arrive to spawn.  There are thousands of tourists and school groups that come to see this wonder in nature.

We would sit side by side making hundreds of beads while talking and listening to music or watching our favorite TV shows.  It was sometimes a bit tedious making so many salmon but doing it together made it more enjoyable.

Dave's favorite task with the clay was buffing our clay beads and pieces with the Dremel tool.  He said it was relaxing and loved seeing the clay go from a matte finish to gloss and almost glass-like shine.

Dave teaching how to polish the clay with a dremel tool

Dave was loved by so many and everyone says how they will always remember his great smile!  He was always so positive and looked at the glass half full side of things.  This never changed even after he became very ill and discovered his kidneys had failed.  He was on dialysis for nearly 17 years, with a year and a half break in the middle when he received a kidney transplant.  The new kidney eventually rejected and failed meaning he was to go back on dialysis for the remainder of his life.

We were fortunate for him to have his own dialysis machine at home.  Here in Canada everything is provided by our health care system including the training involved.  They actually encourage it, whenever it is possible, as it is more cost effective and saves the government thousands of dollars each year verses going to a dialysis unit and have the nurses and techs do everything for you.  Having his own machine at home was not only convenient, but gave him more independance and allowed him to have more control over his health and life.

I am so glad for all those extra years we had together.  Dave use to say he was living in "over-time" and he would keep on going as long as I still loved and needed him!

Well after spending several weeks in the hospital, his body could not take anymore and was worn out.  I will miss him dearly but it gives me peace knowing he is not suffering any more.

Next week will be the hardest with Christmas day and would have been our 31st wedding anniversary.  I have plenty of good memories and would not trade those for anything.

So good-bye my love.  I will miss you so much, but you are still in my heart and I will always love you!