Thank You to My Dear Friend Who Supported Me for 40 Years

On our way back to Toronto from the Collingwood conference right after coming back from our European trip in June, we passed by Barrie, a city with a population about 150,000 people. We visited Don, whom we had not seen for a few months. Initially, he told me not to vsit him as he said he didn't feel so good. This was strange, I thought. We have been best friends for years.

Since retrirement, we both live in different cities. Whenever possible, we always try to see each other. Don thought he might have caught COVID, therefore, he should stay away. But I told him, we could see each other through the windows and waved at each other. He agreed as he was eager to see us as well. By the time we got to his house, he had chairs set out on his front yard, far apart from each other so that we could meet and talk outdoor. I was shocked at how my friend looked. He looked pale and his face horribly grey. We exchanged greetings and a few words. Trying to cut some fresh fruit for us, Don brought a knife from the house and walked toward us. I was alamred as he was swaying from side to side while holding the knife in his hand. I rushed up and asked if he was OK. He mumbled something saying that he was fine. I told him that he was not fine and pleaded for him to go to the emergency at the hospital. He did, but not right away. A week or so later we got a call from his family informing us that Don was admitted into the Royal Victoria Health Centre, Barrie. We went to visit him right away. We have been visiting him weekly supporting him and his family through this difficult time.

We just came back from visiting our best friend in Barrie. D. was discharged last week from the Royal Victoria Hospital and went home. He has been diagnosed with blood cancer about three months ago. He received one session of the chemo treatment and was informed that he did not respond to it at all. Therefore, the doctors told him that there was nothing else they could do for him. They said that he had two choices - transfer to a hospice or go home and live out his final days.

It was D.'s wish to go home. We went to visit him for the first time after his family took him home. It was heartbreaking for me to see my best friend of 40 years lying there with his eyes closed. We greeted him and he opened his eyes and gave me a smile as soon as he heard my voice. My dear friend was suffering and he was agiated. He could not say anything to me as he had no energy left after not eating much for almost three months. The cancer has robbed him of his cheerful peronality and good appetite. There was nothing I could do or say to cheer him up. I did bring my computer with me so I used my computer and played him some hymns.

God's words are powerful! As D. was listening to the beautiful hymns like Great is Thy Faithfulness, How Gret Thou Are, he started to calm down. When I played the song You Lifted Me Up, tears started to stream down my face This dear friend of mine has lifted me up for the past four decades.I thought about all the time when he was there for me - supporting, encouraging and believing in me when I was going through the vigorous principal selection process with the boards of education in Ontario.

When no one thought that an immigrant woman could become a public school principal in Toronto, my dear friend believed in me, encouraged and cheered me on throughout the year long process. He has become our dearest friend, our rock and our confident for the past forty years. I took this opportunity and let him know how much we love him and treasure his friendship. He was so strong and we never imagined that we would see him in this state - so fragile, weak and sick.

I wanted so much for our best friend to have salvation and to be in heaven so that we could meet again someday. I asked him to accept Jesus and asked God to forgive his sins. I encouraged him to say the prayer after me if he wanted to accept Jesus and believe in God. He did, even in his tiny weak voice!

I am so so sad about Don's illness and I will miss him dearly when the time comes. But I am hopeful and comforted by the fact that he said the acceptance prayer this evening in my presence. May God be with you, our dear beloved friend!

RT, Barrie, Ontario, Canada 10062024

Celebrating My Milestone Birthday with Our Loved Ones at a Backyard Party in Toronto

As 2024 is coming to a close, I reflected on all the events happened in the past year. Of all the celebrations and events we have had this year so far, the most special events for me were our trip to Asia and my milestone birthday celebrations.

The ladies at the Women's Group gave me a surprise party at their last meeting before the summer break. They presented me with gifts and each one of them took turn and spoke very kindly of me and how my work has impacted their families over the years. It touched my heart and I have been honoured as a member of this group. At the end of July, we decided to have my birthday party at home. This gave us the motivation to work on our backyard making it loo beautiful and ready for the party. On the day of the party, my niece and her family came early setting up the grill and cooking all the yummy BBQ food for the kids.

The catering company, the Colangelo Sisters of Richmond Hill, Ont., which we used for this occasion did a great job delivering the food right on time. The company did some extra things for our children preparing for them some delicious chicken fingers which we didn't even order! The kids loved them and the chicken tenders were gone in no time. We had about sixty family members, relatives and friends in our backyard celebrating my milestone birthday with us and there was enough food and much leftover for them to take home. We even provided our vegetarian guests with veggie pizzas and other vegetarian dishes. God provided us with fine weather and abundant and delicious food from the catering company and our guests. We were grateful for our extended family bringing with them food and drinks. We had a great time! My husband and I were much more relaxed without worrying about the food and were able to enjoy our friends and family at the party. I loved it when the people I love the most were there for my milestone birthday celerbrations. ET, our son came from the US especially to be with me for this special occasion.

Our God grandson and B. were also there. JC, an elementary school student wrote this about my garden birthday party and I loved how honest he was about it! Grandma RTs Milestone Birthday Party – by JC In this essay I am going to talk about Grandma RT's milestone birthday party. I am going to talk about the people, the food and my favorite part: the games. There were so many people! I think there were about 60 people. The most surprising thing was that all of them were related to Grandma RT. But my favorite people were Trevor and the guy in the yellow shirt. Why were they my favorite people? Because they were nice and cool. But waht I liked the most was how I could talk so freely with them. These were my favorite people at the party. The food was so good! We had hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, gummies, you name it. They also had chicken, veal cutlets, salad and Italian food but I did not eat any because I already ate a hamburger. But the desserts at the end was the thing I enjoyed the most. There were rice krispies, jelly, soda, fruits, cookies etc. But My favorite was the rice krispies. These were my favorites!

But by far the best part was the games! I think everyone’s favorite game was ax throwing. But the other games were coin drop and bean bag toss. I think that the second favorite game was coin drop because there were a decent amount of people playing it. I think I was the best at coin drop. But an unorthodox game that we played was this game where you have to touch the opponent's torso using any means possible. This is what we did at Grandma RT's special birthday party. My favorite part was the games.(just in case you forgot).

A Family Affair at the Kempenfest - Barrie's Annual Waterfront Festival

We heard a lot about the Kempenfest festival from our friends living in Barrie, Ontario, but we have never been at the festival for the past three decades as we didn't have too many reasons to visit this city due to our busy lives. Ironically, due to our friend's illness, we have been coming to support him, therefore visiting Barrie on a weekly basis, much more frequently than we have ever been.

On a nice summer afternoon in July this year when we visited Barrie we came upon the festival taking place there. Taking advantage of this good opportunity, we parked our car on a sidestreet downtown and walked towards the festival site. It seemed like we had walked for miles as the festival booths stretched along the Barrie waterfront for almost a couple of km.

There were booths and booths for everything! There was a big area where lots of antique items such as vintage furniture, beautiful wrought iron and wooden garden decorations, books, toys, clocks, clothes, farming tools etc were displayed. Many other booths were selling crafty items, homemade cotton candies, sweets, desserts and mouthwatering food such as BBQ ribs, and burgers of different types, sharwarma , Indian and other ethnic food.

This festival was for everyone! There was an area for families with young children as the festival site included a beatuiful park with many play equipment suitable for the little ones.

There were concerts and contests going on under some beer tents where festival goers could rest, relax, enjoying some beverages while listening to live musical performances or watching a boxing competition.

Sitting under a tent by the water, caressed by gentle breezes and listening to beautiful songs sung by a musician, we let the world go by and taking a break from our everyday worries.

We enjoyed visiting the Kempenfelt Festival very much! How we wished we could have attended this event years earlier so that we could have been with our friend enjoying and having a great time at this festival! RT, Barrie Ont. Canada 072024

Secrets to Happiness - Doing Good and Helping Others Brings Much Joy in Our Lives

We have been very busy this suummer being involved in a number of events. Sometimes, my friends and family ask me why would I keep myself so busy running around and doing things with which I don't need to be concerned. It could be that it is simply my personality. I do not like being idle or wasting time on meaningless things. God has given me much talents; if I don't use these skills, it will be a waste, wouldn't it? We offered to help out in some fundraising charitiable events by opening our home and hosting them during the warmer months in Canada. We thanked God that everytime when these events happened, the weather was always sunny and dry!

1. One event was for ICC's donor appreciation lunch. These donors have been committed and generous in lending their financial support to help children with disabilities in China. My husband has been supporting this good cause for a few years and I offered to do something for this organization if there was a need. During the summer when the weather was gorgeous in Toronto, we welcome some of the donors into our home for a backyard social. It was a good opporunity for those who came to get together and socilaize. We also heard about the future plans of ICC for these disabled children.

It was a bit of work but worth it as we saw our guests enjoying themselves and learning more about how their money was spent in the charity work which they have supported.

2. We helped out another organization called Walk and Talk - This is a new organization in Toronto that holds a monthly zoom meeting and invites experts from their respective fields to deliver quality and informative workshops for the community. They also organize a daily morning online exercise program for seniors. I have been attending for sometime and it motivates me to do my exercise regularly.

3. The third event we hosted was for the parents and participants of the summer camp we helped running in July. We organized a number of activities and scattered them throughout the backyard for kids and adults to enjoy. It was lovely to see parents and their children relaxing and enjoying themselves.

S. and I put on a bible skit to share the message that having good faithful friends is important in our lives. Our guests were amused when I threw myself on the ground pretending that I was the sick person in the skit and that I needed my four friends to carry me to Jesus.

Teaching was like acting! It made us happy to see that all our guests had a great time! We were grateful to have the opportunity to serve others in our community. In the course of doing good and helping people, we discovered what we have gained in return was much more than what we gave. Giving of ourselves has brought us much joy along with some new friendship and excellent social connections! Praise God! RT, Toronto 072024

Presenting at the East Meets West Conference in Collingwood

After having been away for almost three weeks in Europe, we landed on Canadian soil safe and sound, praise God! We arrived home at 3pm, Toronto time and off we went to attend Anita and Clarence's daughter's wedding. Happy that we didn't have any problems with our flight connections and could make it back on time. After the wedding reception on Saturday evening, we had to get up at 6a.m. and drove for 2 hours to the Living Water Resort in Collingwood, Ontario for a conference where I presented a workshop on a topic related to communication.

I had already planned and collaborated with Melissa before leaving for our European trip. So everything was ready beforehand. On the flight back, I did some final editing on my power point and was able to get everything ready. There was a good turnout at the conference. The organizers accommodated my schedule by putting me as the last speaker in their last timeslot so that I would not miss the presentation due to our overseas trip. My workshop went well and people seemed to enjoy my presentation.

Instead of sitting passively listening to me, the audience was divided into eight groups and they were given instructions on how to practise what they had just learned. Incorporating this interactive hands on session worked well with the conference participants as we could hear enthusiastic discussions and cheers coming from different corners of the hall. Nothing made me happier than seeing the participants being engaged and were actively involved with what they were doing. So glad that we were able to get home on time and delivered this workshop as promised to the conference chair! After the workshop, we drove down to Barrie to visit my best friend whom we have not seen for a few months. Really looking forward to it! RT, Collingwood, Ontario, Canada 06152024

Review of Gibson Hotel and Our Alternative Accommodations in Dublin, Ireland

Having booked and paid for our week long stay in Air B & B in Dublin, Ireland, yet unable to locate our host due to the misinformation given to us by the company was a terrifying, frustrating and expensive experience for us. We had no choice but booked at the very last minute and stayed at the Gibson Hotel for our first night at the premium cost of 300 Euro a night. For that price, the hotel did not disappoint us.

Our room was spacious, clean and tastefully decorated. It also came with a complimentary hot breakfast with a good variety of choices of hot and cold breakfast items. We dined with many fellow hotel guests in a comfortable and nice dining room. The serving staff was attentive providing us with good service and refilling our cups with tea and coffee. It was an excellent experience and we would go back to the Gibson Hotel anytime. However, the cost for the night was on the high side and this would be prohibitive for many travellers.

After our first night at the Gibson Hotel in Dublin, we were finally able to contact our B & B host and moved there for the rest of our stay. This host has practically turned his apartment unit into a hotel like business. He rented out three rooms each renovated with its own private bathroom and with welcoming décor and thoughful furnishing. There was even a lobby area with a long side table where the host placed a large fruit bowl filled with fresh fruits such as bananas and apples each day. There was a good size fridge and a shelf stocked with local wines and liquor. We didn’t take advantage of the wines provided to us as drinking is not something we do too often. But it was very thoughtful of the host to have these provisions on hand for his guests.

Located right by the river, this accommodation was perfect for our need to be close to the downtown area. We liked the place so much that we extended two more days there as we could walk to most of the attractions in the downtown area and caught a bus taking us directly to the airport when we would depart for home. This is a place where we would recommend to others and will be happy to return to in the future should we visit Dublin again! RT, Dublin, Ireland 062024

A Great City to Visit - Dublin Exceeded Our Expectations

We have had an enjoyable and great experience in Dublin. During our week long stay in this city, we have learned a great deal about the Irish history, people and climate. Irish climate, as we experienced personally, has been depicted humourously in this poster in Dublin.

Of all the things we have learned about Ireland, the events and stories of the Great Famine hit us in our faces in Dublin. The Great Famine left an indelible mark on Ireland and its people. Ireland lost about one million of its population due to death caused by the famine and famine related diseases and a further one million Irish emigrated to other parts of the world which meant the country losing a quarter of its population during these famine years. .

Wherever we went in Dublin, we saw exhibits, displays, artwork, tours and events reminding its people and visitors alike about this horrific part of the Irish history. Besides seeing the sculptures of starving skeleton like Irish men and women erected in parks, public spaces,

we also read about the detail descriptions of the effects of this famine had on the people and Ireland in museums, library, billbaords and even in bars and restaurants where we ordered a pint or food to re-energize ourselves.

We could see and feel the economic prosperity in Dublin. While walking each day back and forth from our place to downtown, we admired those beautifully newly constructed business buildings along the both sides of the river. Housed within these numerous brand new office buildings are big international businesses and hi tech corporations strategically located their business in this city bringing with them many high tech and high paying jobs for the local people. Consequently, this particular waterfront area of Dublin has been dubed ' The new Silicon Valley".

Dublin exceeded our expectations in terms of: 1. Interesting food the city could offer - we tasted delicious food not limited to Irish food alone. While in Dublin we were able to try different kinds of food from various ethnic origins.

2 A walkable city steep in culture and history - many museums and famous sites are not too far from each other making visits to these famous sites easy and accessible. 3. Ancient and modern buildings with spectacular architecture coexisiting side by side other making Dublin one of the most interesting cities in the world.

3. Good public transportation system - direct public transportation from the airport to downtown and going to other places within the city 4. A reasonable safe city - Being seniors, we didn't do any late night bar crawls but we did walk around a couple of times after dark and we were not harassed or felt unsafe. 5. Polite services and assistance given when dealing with everyday sales and retail staff members Dublin is more than what we have expected and we thoroughly enjoyed out time while vacationing there! Thank you, Dublin! R.T. Dublin, Ireland 062024