today i bought a poppy

i'm not sure why, but lately i've been thinking about gord.

during my time working in long-term care as a music therapist, i must have seen maybe 100 residents during any given week, but out of everyone i don't see anymore, i miss him the most. i actually thought of dropping my hours at his home on more than one occasion, but i never did largely because him. he was my favourite resident and i couldn't bring myself to leave as long as he was there - and it was in my control to stay.

even though he passed away in april 2009, i still get sad when i think about him. i never got to tell him i would be going back to school for OT. i never got to tell him justin had proposed to me and that i was going to get married. i never got sing certain songs with him, and thanks to a stupid outbreak that lasted for a month prior to his death, i never got to say goodbye. :(

anyway, gord was a veteran having been in the army for six years in his late teens to mid-twenties and he had a tattoo of his infantry on his arm and a head full of memories and stories as a result. while i've always respected veterans and remembrance day, i was never really into buying poppies until i worked in long-term care and the donation boxes were literally right there. i'm no longer working in long-term care, but even so i picked up a poppy today and on my way home, with gord on my mind and a lump in my throat, i decided i would buy one every year from here on in. it would be my way of remembering the fallen soldiers and their sacrifice, and my way of remembering my favourite veteran who has now joined his fallen comrades, gord.

i won't forget.
and i will certainly never forget gordon.
rip gord, rip. you are missed.