Howdy!
September has probably been the most eventful month of this year...
And it's not even over yet!
I started this month with traveling to Hamburg with Jannis and Mariia to represent Magic Pages at IndieCon and staying at the COOLEST hotel ever, The Westin Hamburg Elbphilharmonie.
Oh! And achieving one of my life goals of having a burger in Hamburg. Dulf's Burger was probably in the top 3 best burgers that I've ever had.
I had an absolute blast where I also got to meet cool people like Jan Persiel, the creator of Casual Friday Club and Mark Alexander from Tech that Fits and Never Too Small.
When Mariia, Jannis, and I got back from Hamburg, we did a podcast episode on our experience, check out it below:
Jannis Fedoruk-Betschki
Big thank you to Mariia and Jannis for sponsoring me to attend. It was one of the highlights of my freelancing career and a full circle moment to be there!
Puff Puff!
A few days after IndieCon, some of my closest friends from Canada came to visit me in Bad Ischl!
We all brought our Mango Town Tomato Puff Tigers and did a mini photoshoot like the photo below.
It meant the world to me that my friends took time to come visit especially with my best friend wanting to come to Austria to celebrate her 30th birthday!
But only after ~24 hours of visit... I got alarming texts from my dad and cousin that I needed to head back to Canada ASAP...
My grandma was about to pass away and I needed to say my last goodbye.
At 11pm, I was coordinating with my family on a flight back.
By 12am, I had my flight booked and randomly stuffing closes into my carry-on while simultaneously explaining to my best friend what was happening while she helped me fold my clothes.
By 6:30am, Jannis had started to drive me to Salzburg.
By 10am, I started my flight back home to Calgary,Canada.
By 4pm in Calgary, I landed and was booking an Uber to cousin's house.
By 5pm, I was holding my grandma's hand and she was gripping me hand harder than me gripping a 300lb bar when I deadlift.
And by 12:06:21pm the next day, my grandma peaceful went into eternal sleep...
Saying my last good bye to my grandma was the most grateful thing that I could ever ask for.
Had my cousin not question the doctor, my grandma would have passed before I could even book a flight back home... I am forever grateful for my cousin for helping our grandma live a couple more days for me to have time to plan and come home.
I'm so incredibly grateful that I was able to book a flight across the world and be able to see my grandma in less than 24 hours WITHOUT any flight issues.
And grateful for my friend, Jannis who was willing to drive me to Salzburg from Bad Ischl and helping me find flights on such a short notice.
It's crazy that I flew from Austria to Canada without any hiccups and be there so quickly... yet it wasn't possible for some of my family in the USA with crazy flight issues in airlines... but also money...
I'm so grateful to have had the funds to be able to drop thousands of dollars to say goodbye... And I know I'm saying this with privilege that not everyone can do... But I didn't even blink... I choose the most expensive flight to get me to Canada as fast as possible.
I later learned from my parents that my extended family wanted to let our grandma leave this world a couple of days sooner... But my mom and other aunts and uncles wanted me to say my last goodbye.
It means the absolute world for me to hear how much my mom fought for this and although I wasn't the favourite grandchild... I think my grandma appreciated it, too.
But there was still a high risk that my grandma would have naturally passed before I arrived... But my aunts and uncles think that she did stick around for another day to wait for me.
Since my grandma's passing, my extended family has been incredibly close.
Many of my aunts and uncles stopped fighting while my grandma was in the hospital... and finally come to turns on their decades of arguments...
My cousins and I went through hundreds of photos in photo albums to find photos of our grandma. We cried, laughed, and repeated for several hours... and realized we really need to take more family photos cause it's been years.
I think over the past 10 days, I don't think I've been this close to my cousins ever. We basically were glued to the hip for 12+ hours a day.
We would do ice cream and bubble tea runs together. We would actually run, talk, and ask one another if we were ok, and lots of hugs.
We were closer than ever.
And at our grandma's funeral, our uncle threw a curve ball at us and gave us literally 30 seconds of prep that every single grandchild was to stand up and share their favourite memory with grandma.
We were all fumbling and we partially knew it was because our uncle wants us to say something from the heart and NOT use AI haha.
For me, I shared how she was the one of the strongest women I knew both physically and mentally.
Whenever I get lazy and I don't want to workout or work, I think of my grandma and all of the hard work that she's done over the years.
From her first marriage of being a General's wife to running 2 farms and being a female boss to 50+ employees in the 50s-60s... to immigrating from Vietnam to China to Vietnam again to China again to Canada.
The OG Girl Boss!
And how she makes the best, Banh Cuon (my favourite Vietnamese breakfast dish).
The doctor at the hospital suggested that we write a book about her life but we all joked, people probably wouldn't believe some of the wild things that this tiny lady has accomplished in her 95 years.
My grandma was one of the main people who raised me when my parents had to work. She was the glue to my entire family.
Now that she's gone, my mom and I worry that our extended family will slowly separate.
So far, my brother, cousins and I have strengthened our bond and hopefully our generation stays in unity even as some of us move away from Calgary...
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I was struggling to fall alseep and decided to take the time to let some emotions out and find my outlet to properly grieve.
I would love to hear your favourite memory with your grandparent.
I always feel like grandparents and grandkids have a special bond.
Christine