A sad day indeed. I will always remember you Michelle!

Monday, May 17th - Fishing and Saunas! - Third day off now. It's Monday though, so we headed to the gym and then drove out to Erik's camp for some beach-side fishing. I learned how to cast, but I definitely need some practice! Unfortunately there weren't any bites, so we went swimming and then decided to sauna. While the fire was heating up we BBQed and then it was sauna time! He has a sweet sauna that gets nice and hot (220 degrees). After a few cycles of sauna and swimming we called it a day and packed up to go home. It was good we did, because the sun had left and the bugs were really starting to come out. In the evening I learned that Kyle's mom Michelle, which is fighting cancer for the 3rd time, was not doing very well and had trouble breathing. I was able to say hi to her, and spent awhile cheering him up.


Tuesday, May 18th - Sad news - Michelle passed away at 10:45pm last night. She was an amazing woman, probably the bravest and most caring I will ever meet, and she will be missed by many, many people. She fought hard for three years and lived an incredible life, full of family, friends, nature and beauty. I send my condolences to her family and encourage everyone to remember all of the sweet, happy moments in her life. Rest in peace Michelle!
I spent the day collecting myself and reflecting on all the awesome times I spent with Michelle, especially how she had accepted me into her family as her own daughter. I'm going to miss her.  Eventually I got around to some errands, but mainly it was a take-it-easy day. Here she is posing in front of some heather in Scotland, her favourite country, after she beat cancer the first time:

Fire Update - There's been lots! Matt and Erik went fishing again today, but the first lake they went to turned out to be right near one of the raging fires, and they ended up having to pick up a fire-fighter that was stuck on an island because the helicopter couldn't land between the torching trees (when fire jumps up the trunks). Apparently Cochrane had three fires today already and had to send Timmin's crews to that one.