It saddens me to say, while reminding myself to breathe, my dear friend Gay passed away peacefully at her home. 

I’ve known her since I was a little girl. She took me to my first Adam Sandler movie, bought me my first training bra. She stood by me during my divorce. She meant the world to me.

As I got older and had a home of my own, Gay and I would do our garden shopping together. Or we’d go to a friend’s house and raid their gardens for plants that needed dividing and then share them (with permission of course). We subscribed to all the same gardening magazines and then would discuss articles. I was Gay’s gardening sidekick, her protégé. We would shop at Connon’s and take trips together to Canada Blooms – we always had so much fun. I loved our time spent together.

She loved gardening.
She knew all the Latin names of plants.
She loved reading.
She loved her family dearly and always had wonderful stories of them to tell.
She loved wolves.
She always had huskies. They were her favourite. At one point she had 5!
She took my picture with every puppy she brought home – that was our thing.
Oh my goodness she had quite the collection of orchids!
And Partylite!

Gay was a beautiful person. Strong. Intelligent. Kind.
I am going to miss her terribly.