Before I start I want to be clear that the list of important people is long, very long but this post is about a special 3 and 2 of them were a part of my every day life for 8 months.
I was living in Victoria at the time of the accident, and I had a spouse until the day he put me on a plane by myself with no money and no access to any. I felt like I was being sent into the lions den to fight a bunch of lions with no support. My mom and I were always at odds over something or another and I was sure she was going to find a way to blame me, my daughters father and I barely spoke in the 18 years we'd been divorced, my sister - well I'm sure you read how she delivered the news to me, and I was scared. I didn't know how I was going to survive, eat, where I was going to sleep, I didn't have my vehicle, I was confused, and sad, and angry and scared beyond belief.....thankfully the boys and Miss Molly saved me.
It's no secret that I've know Joe for about 10 years. Over the years I had met his very good friend Jim 3....maybe 4 times. What I knew about Jim was that he was a red-neck type, golf nut, beer drinking, tough guy, tender engough to raise his daughter all by himself. I guess it would have been the day after I arrived in Edmonton that I got a call from Jim. He lives in Edmonton but happened to be in Kelowna golfing with Joe. First, he let me talk to Joe for a long time, and then he got back on the phone and said 'You will stay with me and Molly. My neighbour has a spare key, here's the address, I'll be home in a week, make yourself comfortable, and no - don't argue, the house is only 10 minutes from the hospital.' That was literally the END of the conversation.
So that's how Jim and I became roommates and quite frankly, a family of sorts. I hadn't seen Molly since she was about 5 (she was 14 at this point) and I'd only met her once for one evening but we bonded instantly. I lived with them for all those months and he never charged me a bit of rent, argued when I bought some groceries, cooked me meals, made me laugh and took care of me for a long time. He said he did it becuase if Joe loved me, he did too. I will love Jim to pieces for ever. Looking back at the state I was in I honestly don't know what I would have done or where I would be today if it hadn't been for Jim. I owe him more that I could ever find ways to repay. (Although he says if I come back and teach Molly to drive we'll be even;) The best part is my daughters very first outing from the rehab hospital was to Jim's for dinner. It was a blast and a story I'll tell another time.
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