I started my last post by attempting to explain my recent prolonged absence from the blog and declaring I was finally back and ready to just jump back in where I left off!  Only a few short hours after posting that, things changed.

The Fall is all about change.  Its unquestionably my favorite time of the year because of its sheer beauty and the fact that its always signified great changes and new beginnings in my life over the years.  This year has been no exception.  My recent lack of blogging was a result of one of the biggest changes in my life - a move to a new province, a new house, a new lifestyle.

There are those changes in life that you initiate and changes in life you have no control over.  My decision to move away was completely my own but one that came with sacrifices.  It would be the first time in my life I was going to live away from my family and friends.  Sacrifices.  My Mom took this news the hardest as I'm her only daughter - I reassured her I would be returning to Toronto frequently and that she'd see me often.   So here I was, the moving truck just left and we were finally semi-settled in our temporary living arrangements ready to begin a renovation to our new old house.  Ahhh, a chance to breathe and catch up with the blog.

Shortly after publishing my last post I received one of those phone calls that you never want to get, a phone call that changes your life forever.   To receive that phone call, the news that my Mom had suddenly passed away, while being so so far away from my family was difficult to say the least.

I never expected my first trip back to Toronto to be so soon and for such an ocassion.  During this past week with my family I couldn't help but notice the overwhelming beauty of the changing season around me.  I couldn't imagine a more beautiful day for that final fall drive to her resting place beside my Dad.  If anything, it was a magical setting that she would have loved.

For the most part I prefer to write very little about my private life here but something like this has such a lasting effect on ones perspective that in order to understand me and my point of view going forward I feel its relevant to share as I know I will reflect on this and the events of last week often, particularly the relation of home and family.