I come from a large family: six kids, two parents and the occasional dog. And, while it was exhausting for my mom, and expensive for my dad, we kids thrived.

A professional hockey player once said, “How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on, and 18,000 people boo?”

This coming week on October 26th will mark one year since my best friend and husband of 35 years made his transition. It is also his birthday on October 27th.

I strongly disagree with Your West Central Voice columnist Joan Janzen’s assertion in the October 18, 2022, edition, that the election of Georgia Meloni as Italian Prime Minister is cause for celebration.

Last night I dreamt I was lost in Grasslands National Park. And I didn’t have cell reception! Big deal, I said upon waking.

Recently a teacher took her class to the library, and found one of her students reading his favourite genre ... cookbooks.

On the 23rd of this month, I’m giving a talk at The Jasper Centre in Maple Creek on some Victorian-era Not-to-Be-Trifled-with Women.

A funny comment on social media, said “Does anybody need any feelings? I have too many and they’re just gonna go bad.”

Twice a month, I drive to Swift Current for supplies and to do errands. And to eavesdrop. I start with my recycling.

Luke Skywalker said, “Yoda, we’ve been walking for hours! Are you sure that we’re going the right way?”

If you are in grief over loss of a loved one, a job, a relationship, a home, or any other loss I am here to tell you I have been there. Likely not exactly the same way you have but I can relate to the pain of loss.

The press is caught up in royal-mania, on an upswing of its love-hate-love-the-monarchy pendulum. The latest symptom is the reference to Queen Elizabeth’s reign as the “Elizabethan era.”

I’m beginning this week with a corny Elvis joke. The voice on the phone told the lady she had won her choice of either $500 or tickets to see an Elvis Presley tribute band.

What a tragic, momentous week it was. A week of death. On Thursday, these words came to mind: from the colonized to the colonizer.

A philosopher told his followers, “There are two things in life that matter above all else. 1. Integrity. If you made a promise, carry it out, even if it bankrupts you, cripples you, or kills you.

I’m reading a book by Dr. Daniel Amen entitled: Your Brain Is Always Listening. It’s a scary thought, considering the amount of chatter, judgement, thoughts of remorse and resentment…

“I failed history again,” the student told his friend. “I guess those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

The entire province was on edge early in the week as the manhunt continued for Myles Sanderson. He was finally apprehended by RCMP near Rosthern…

My father was R.L. Hanbidge, 12th Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan. The death of Queen Elizabeth made me reminisce.

My sister and I were lying on the wharf at Spruce Coulee when she pointed at something I’d written in ballpoint pen on my thigh. “What’s that say?”