Thanks brother - if it means anything, that post of mine came straight from the heart, and was meant for her just as much as it was for me/us. Im happy that you got something from it though. I did too...
Im not a religious or a higher power kinda guy, at all.. But its too cool a story not too share imo. And if anything its nice to think that sometimes, good things can happen for reasons that are beyond our current understanding.
And on my mom being amazing - that couldnt be more of an understatement. Single mom/only child duo that lived a HUGELY unconventional life in an middle class white picket fence small town. But she not only made it work (sports, rep hockey, latest video game consoles, basically allowed me to assume control of her car at 17 lol, ECT ECT), she friggin nailed it while keeping me oblivious to the fact that we were relatively poor most of my childhood. And despite some questionable friends and choices along the way, I eventually made something respectable of myself. And she can take most of the credit for that.
My large circle of friends liked her so much that I would regularly wake up in the afternoon (teenage dirt bag w/e man..) and find that my friends had been over for hours chilling with my mom. The running joke was always that they were in actuality there to see her, and not me....It could be argued that it was true because she still got visitors when I had left Sudbury for a few years after school...She had more of my ex girlfriends on her facebook friends list than I did, and "how she was doing" was the first question most of them asked if we ever crossed paths together.,,.not me lol..
Oh and she played video games (SNES rpgs mostly) when she wasnt walking her dogs on their two daily walks that were like 12kms each through the deep woods in Northern Ontario, rain, shine or snow....lots of snow...She thought she was pretty tough just because she was among the first group of women to take and complete the new "gender neutral" version of basic training in the army, which no longer gave special/lowered physical requirements for the ladies of the corps.
TLDR: YES - she was an awesome f***ing lady. Through and through.
Sorry for droning on guys, Im done now. its jus one of those nights I guess...