A flight to remember

Hello everyone,
First, let me apologize for my spelling and grammar errors. I am still working on figuring some things out on this and spell check is obviously one them. Also, please feel free to add any comments but please keep it clean....some kids may be reading this! All you have to do, is at the end of the entry you will see "comments" just click on that and type away. Yes Cairne, yours did work!!
Thanks Kerry for adding the photos of the Ottawa walk to the blog. Is she not the best!?
Pat and I left for Winnipeg yesterday afternoon and it will be a flight I will not forget. No it was not turbulance or a late flight. It was because of the young man I was sitting beside for the flight. He was dressed in a suit and tie (something you do not see often anymore unless it is a businessman) and he had been flying all night from London England and was on his way to Winnipeg to visit with his cousins. He had been doing this for years and he loves Canada. He thinks it is a beautiful country and the "people are just so friendly". He was going to fulfil a dream on this trip and see Yellowstone Park. Something he always wanted to do and you could tell by the light in his eyes he was very excited about this.
He asked me why I was going to Winnipeg and I told him all about the walk and he was quite impressed by the 60 kms factor. The conversation got quiet and he started to look out the window and so I thought he was tired and would like to rest for a bit....which he did. I turned on one of the movies and for those of you who have seen movies with me....I have been told that I may be a bit "critical" of Hollywood and their lack of imagination. Oops was that critical? So the best of the best was "Wild Hogs" with William H. Macy, Tim Allen and John Travolta. It seemed like a good cast and how bad could it be? Well, they should of named it "Wild BORE" if you want to look up "predictable" this movie would be the definition! However, I digress.
Well, lucky for me the young man beside me seemed to be wanting to talk again, which I was SO thankful for. So I took off my earphones.....and he turned and looked at me and put his hand in his pocket and took out an American $10 bill and pushed it into my hand. He said "this is for your walk...I am just sorry it is not more" He insisted that I take it which I did.
You see this young man, his name is Edward but goes by Ted. He is travelling alone at the age of 88 years young. He has been doing this trip every year since 1986 which is the year he lost his wife to cancer. That was the year I lost my mom. With tears in his eyes and his voice breaking up he proceeded to tell me about his lovely wife, Clarice. Even after all this time you could tell that he missed her terribly and it was still a true love story. The ten dollars was in her memory. I was very proud to accept it on his behalf.
Ted volunteers at a Survivor Home in London and they have a sale at this home every three weeks which he helps organize and volunteers at. They sell "used gents suits" and these sales raise for $40,000 dollars a year for the home. The home is privately funded and it costs 1m dollars a week to operate. Clarice spent her last three weeks there and Ted has vowed to help them for as long as he can to try a repay what they did for his wife in the last weeks of her life.
Pat and I helped Ted in the airport and made sure he met his cousin. I introduced myself to Ted earlier as Mari-Jayne "but my friends call me M.J." and as we parted at the airport I wanted to give him a hug but just shook his hand and told him how much I enjoyed meeting him and enjoyed his company. He shook my hand warmly and said "me too M.J.".....
Enjoy Yellowstone Ted and I will be thinking of you and Clarice this weekend.