More than a decade…

I began writing a weekly essay more than a decade ago, in fact it was thirteen years on October 3rd this year.  Wow, where has the time gone?

I’m often asked what my original motivation was to begin writing.

In fact, there were two reasons…

My dad passed away on Valentine’s Day 2011 with me at his bedside and prior to that during his illness I spent the best part of six months commuting between Canada and Australia.

He had been diagnosed with Glioblastoma (fast growing brain tumour) in August of 2010, and after an 8-hour operation to remove what they could the surgeon and team were unable to get it all.

Time became short and we all knew it.

I’d spend one week in Canada with my family, as Zach and Sam were 11 and 9 respectively, then three weeks in Australia with him either in hospital with him or being his driver to and from his treatments.

It was during his illness that my best mate Craig suggested (wouldn’t take no for answer) that we hike the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea as this was something that we’d often discussed but had never gotten around to.

We agreed and booked onto a trip starting in November 2011.

Dad’s health took a significant downturn in late January 2011 before his subsequent passing in February.

After his funeral I returned home to Toronto, but after years of my work travel (being on the road 5 days per week) and my dad’s illness my marriage was struggling to stay afloat.

Between my sense of loss and grief for my dad, I had unconsciously begun the same process for my marriage.

We agreed on counselling to see if we could salvage it, but this is another story entirely, so I’ll leave it here for now…

With the thought of our hike to Kokoda in November, and the full physical that I had to undergo to be accepted onto the trip I knew that I had to train for it.

Knowing that the Kokoda track was 96 km’s of some of the world’s most rugged and remote locations on the planet I had to be able to be physically and mentally ready for it.

I began training in earnest about in May with a boxing coach three mornings per week, and as much walking as I could handle.  In addition, I would hike 4.5 hours around the city each Sunday morning with a 25kg (50Ib) pack on my back.

For more than a decade, since finishing football I had let myself go physically and so found the boxing training gruelling to say the least.

My boxing coach, Horace pushed me until I regained my fitness and prepared me for the hike.  Between his encouragement and my hike training I felt ready to tackle Kokoda.

My grief and sense of loss of my dad were still ever present throughout this months, however it was during this time that I thought that perhaps I could turn his passing into something positive.

I reached out to the Canadian Cancer Society and explained my idea of raising money as part of my hike in my dad’s memory.

To me this would be a great way, albeit relatively minor to help raise awareness and money for cancer research.

They wholeheartedly agreed and within a day had a micro site set up for me to begin taking donations.

My original goal had been $5,000 but after only 24 hours I had already raised more than that.  So, we upped the goal to $10,000.

In all, I was able to raise $17,500 from over 100 contributors.

I’d never written anything outside of school or for work, but as I thought about the incredibly generous donors, I thought that it would be a great idea to bring them along on my training and eventually the hike.

This was the genesis of me and my journey to become a writer.

However, as I said up front there were two reasons…

Given that I travelled so much for work leading up to dad’s illness then the six months back and forth to Australia I was clearly an absent dad.

I knew deep down that this as aspect of my life had to change!

I decided to keep writing a weekly story, but this time from my childhood so that I could captured these for Zach and Sam.

If not now, then in the future so that they always had a place to read some of the stories from my upbringing in rural Australia and the crazy adventures that I got myself into.

Fast forward to 2024 and Zach and Sam are now grown.

Zach is 25 and Sam is 23 (where did the years go), and we are all spread to the four corners of the earth with Zach in Chicago undertaking his second Master’s degree and Sam in London (UK) taking her Masters.

In December 2020, I moved back to Australia (for the weather primarily) after 32 years of living in Toronto and becoming a dual citizen.

Canada is very much in my heart and miss the familiarity of Toronto and Vancouver (where I spent 3.5 years during my weekly travel).

My writing has been an incredible way to remember the stories of my childhood and to share them, not only with Zach and Sam but also with all of my readers.

Now, two published books and some 680 stories later I find myself completely addicted to rhythm of writing each week.

Yes, it’s been more than a decade of unforgettable memories.

Until next week.

Ciao