Dear friends and family,
It is with a peaceful heart
that I announce that on January 1, I will be saying good-bye to my advocacy
work, and hello to the next chapter of my life. After five years of complete dedication
to the cause, it is time. I am looking forward to a slower pace in life and
just enjoying all that life has to offer.
I started my journey to
advocacy in 2011 when I began to get educated about addiction and joined the
newly formed committee called “Island Addiction Movement”. At that time, I
never could have imagined where this was going to take me. It has been an incredible
journey that has forever changed who I am in some really good ways. I am much
stronger and confident now because I know what I’m capable of. I also don’t
sweat the small stuff. These are all good things.
My advocacy work kept me very
busy on top of working my full-time job and, of course, being there for my
beautiful family. But, I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. I was doing
exactly what I was meant to be doing. I knew that with every ounce of my being.
I have been healed for four
years now, and my son is over two years into his healing and recovery. We are
blessed and grateful. It is time to move on and enjoy our lives free from
addiction, knowing that we helped in some way to make the journey a little less
hard for others who came, or will come, after us. While the system is still not perfect, it is
much better than it was when our son reached out for help years ago. We have
done what we set out to do.
Through tears and smiles, I
took a walk down memory lane by creating a summary of my advocacy work so that
I would have something to look back on. I am so glad that I did that because I
had already forgotten about some things. I am posting it on
my blog to share with anyone who is interested in the hopes that it will
inspire others to find their voices, even in a small way. If you do find yours, I guarantee that you
will not only empower yourself, but you will empower so many others, too.
I am proud of what I’ve
accomplished and I have no regrets. Every time I penned a letter, walked up to
a podium, researched addiction, or something else, I did it with love and
compassion, wanting nothing more than to help people who were hurting. I would
regularly ask God to give me guidance on what He wanted me to do next, if this
was indeed what He wanted me to be doing. Needless to say, He kept me busy!
I could not have accomplished any
of it without the support of my loving husband and beautiful children and
granddaughter. However, I owe the biggest thanks to my son because none of this
would have been possible without his permission to share parts of his life with
you. He is my hero.
I am so grateful for the
friends that I made along the way, and for the people who trusted me with their
deepest secrets and worst fears when they reached out to me for help.
I am also thankful for people like
Karen Mair from CBC who was always so supportive and had us on her show to talk
about things that we were doing, and Jim Day from the Guardian who was the
first reporter that I spoke to when our family went public and he was so kind to
this nervous mom.
I am grateful for those of you
who followed my work by visiting my blog, sharing my posts, and so on, and to those
of you who invited me to be part of your events.
Thank you all! I reached people
because of YOU!
Although, I am no longer going
to be involved with addiction and advocacy, many of the things I was involved
with will continue. Roni Power will continue to be an admin on our various
Facebook groups, including the Island Addiction Movement. Our fantastic SMART
Recovery team will continue on with the meetings, and Roni will continue to run
the family support group that we started together.
I will continue to co-chair our
SMART Recovery family & friends group and post daily on my blog and
Facebook pages until December 31st. I may post on my blog from time
to time in the future, if something inspires me to do so. Please be sure to
bookmark or follow my blog so that you will receive any new posts.
In closing, I would like to ask
Premier Wade MacLauchlan, Health Minister Doug Currie, and others in government
to incorporate the recommendations that the Mental Health and Addictions
Advisory Council will be putting before them at some point. As a member of the
Advisory Council, I worked hard and I know that the others at the table did as
well. Please don’t let the document collect dust. This issue is too important
to the lives of all Islanders (whether they realize it right now or not).
Thank you all for everything.
Much love and peace,
