DID YOU ENJOY YOUR SUMMER AS I DID? By Joel Jacobson

Originally published in the September 2020 edition of the Ostomy Halifax Gazette

We’re still somewhat bogged down by the restrictions of COVID-19.

I say “somewhat” because many of us ARE getting out of the house to shop, dine a bit, see some close friends – all the while wearing masks, observing social distancing limits, and being careful where we go.

I’m sitting at my dining room table, which, with my laptop open and papers spread about, doubles as my desk. There is a bouquet of sunflowers staring at me, bringing back the memories of a recent trip to the Annapolis Valley where they were purchased at a farm market. But this is an end-of-August day when a cool, north wind is auguring a fall season too quick to come (for me, at least).

It’s been a good summer season for me.

My bride of a zillion years and I made a weekend trip to Cape Breton a month ago where we travelled the Cabot Trail, something we had not done in more than 40 years. Little had changed except the absence of traffic. A nasty result of COVID.

A week later, we went the other way, rambling the South Shore, stopping for an overnight in Shelburne. The next day, we visited the Black Loyalist Museum, a site we had never seen in all our years in this province. It was a marvelous experience, educational and enlightening, and even frightening in today’s climate. It enabled us to realize the hardships undergone by African-Canadians of the 18th and 19th centuries – and unfortunately, despite many advances, bringing to light what many people of color, and others of racially- and religiously-profiled groups, go through today.

On another weekend, we also drove to Hall’s Harbour, a stone’s throw from Kentville if you have a VERY STRONG ARM, where we dined at a lovely seafood restaurant and watched the fastest and highest tides I have ever seen rush their way into land. It was our first time there, too.

We did STAYCATIONS, seeing parts of our province that had either been visited eons ago or never experienced before.

In a normal summer, we might have flown to England for a couple of weeks to inflict ourselves upon our daughter, her husband and their two children, who also happen to be our fabulous grandchildren. It would have been marvelous, but FaceTime had to make up for it.

We also would have dropped into Toronto to see our son, his wife and their two kids, our other adorable grandchildren, and given them many days pleasure of having us around. Again, the alternate was FaceTime.

But COVID-19 had other plans for us. We were reluctant to fly (and England would have been a long, wet drive) so we stayed put – and we enjoyed ourselves.

We’re all getting back into the fall swing now. Unfortunately, there was no face-to-face Ostomy Halifax meeting in September but I hope you were able to join the on-line ZOOM webinar and enjoyed the conversation with president Bill Power.

Hopefully by October 4, we’ll be able to see each other in person.

The annual Stoma Stroll, this year on Saturday October 3, will be a virtual affair – meaning we can raise funds for Ostomy Canada and sort of celebrate our exhilarating lives as people living with ostomies, even though we can’t walk together at the Public Gardens and tell others about our good life.

Hopefully you’ll spend time that day thinking about how you overcame the surgery that might have saved your life, and at least, gave you pain-free comfort from Colitis or Crohn’s, or other trauma, and has enabled you to work, play, and do all the things you did pre-surgery.

Live Life to the Fullest everyone. You deserve it.