This weekend, I participated in Lung Cancer Canada's Give a Breath 5K walk for the second year in a row.
I helped organize our company team and volunteered at the event, just as I did last year. It's a cause that's deeply personal to me, since my mom died of lung cancer. And last year, our company also lost our founder to the same terrible disease, making it personal to our company as well.
As I reflected about the walk, and the fact that my husband and my 9-month-old daughter, Charlee, joined me on it, I feel really grateful. One of the things that loss has taught me is that grief isn't only about missing someone. It's about finding ways to continue loving them. Sometimes that looks like saying their name. Sometimes it looks like sharing memories. Sometimes it looks like finding deeper meaning by fundraising, volunteering, or showing up for a cause that mattered, because they mattered too.
Charlee is too young to remember this walk, but I hope she grows up understanding why we do things like this. I want her to know that we remember the people we love. We honour them. We give back in their memory. We create meaning from loss.
Walking 5K won't change what happened to my mom. It won't bring her back. But it does allow me to take some of the love I have for her and put it into something that helps others, and that feels like a beautiful way to carry her forward.
I am feeling grateful for the $745 I fundraised on behalf of Lung Cancer Canada this year, and I look forward to walking next year and in years to come.
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