BY BLYTH LORD

On the 20^th anniversary of Cameron’s birth day, May 4 1999, Charlie and I took the evening to ponder a while upon those things that her birth and death have given us.

It felt good, enjoyable even, a purposeful thing to do to mark the occasion.

In no particular order:

1. Relief and joy at the arrival of Spring green.
2. Love for the parents in Courageous Parents Network, friends for life.
3. Seeing the strength and resiliency of people affected by hardship and loss.
4. The transformative power of time to heal.
5. The enduring tenacity of loss so that even with the healing, the scar remains — and thank goodness for that.
6. An abiding faith in each other.
7. Wariness of the corrosive nature of regret and faith in the mind’s ability to transcend it.
8. A fear of forgetting.
9. Gratitude for the tenacity and commitment of medical researchers.
10. Ambivalence about modern medicine and technology; it can extend and complicate lives in unanticipated ways.
11. A wish to protect all parents from such complications.
12. The practice of hugging, cuddling, placing my hand upon Cameron’s sisters as often as they can bear.
13. A capacity for poetry, particularly poems that invoke the natural world. Mary Oliver forever.
14. A comfort with considering illness and death and the space that creates for others.
15. The profound generosity of the strangers who have helped launch CPN.
16. Doctors, nurses, social workers, chaplains and child life specialists who strive to be compassionate caregivers.
17. The way she helped make her sisters who they are.
18. Recognition that everyone has their own version of ‘suck’ (per Bob Searle).
19. Recognition that everyone has access to joy every day, in every moment.
20. An appreciation for the saving power of family and friendship in difficult times.

God bless you Nugget. We love you always.