Seven years ago the worst thing ever happened to me. My only child, an eleven year old beautiful girl named Isabel was killed tragically in a motor vehicle accident. I was there, and I still am. Every day. In the earliest days after the accident my best friend Kim held me close, she told me to breathe, she listened to me scream. For days on end.

Time has gone on and so does life. I spent the first years isolating myself, riding my horses, working. Kim and I saw less of each other, but always remained connected. Kim had a perfect life with three beautiful daughters and her husband Brett who was her first and only true sweetheart. Brett was a gracious and beautiful human being. He was intelligent, creative and wise. A proud father and a loving husband, Brett was everything a good man should be. But being for Brett was not meant to be long term. At the age of 48 he was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer that took his life after much suffering. I held her while she screamed and sobbed. I couldn’t be there enough for her, she who had saved me from falling. Alone with her three daughters, Kim too has had to learn how to survive in grief.

But this is not really meant to be a sad story. This story is about survival, friendship and love, and mostly I hope that it will be about joy.

Kim grew up in Waterdown, Ontario on the top edge of the Niagara Escarpment. When we were young we knew that down there over the edge, was The Bruce Trail. We weren’t really allowed to go over the edge of the escarpment – it could be dangerous – her brother Trevor had found that out on his bicycle! However we were intrigued, always, about this 800km trail that ran from Niagara to Tobermory.

Last year, while getting together over coffee or dinner, one of the many times we enjoyed our friendship and connected through grief, pain and loss, we decided to hike the Bruce Trail, not just here or there but from the beginning to the end. All 894km – it would be an adventure, just like we used to have adventures when we were young girls. It would be an accomplishment, a good way to spend time together and mostly it could be the journey forward – the way through grief, a break from the pain.

So here we go…