This post may be a bit different from telling you about the places I love to visit or vendors I buy from. This one is for the community I've found here and the love I'm surrounded by.
I've only been a writer for the Blog BOQ crew for a few months, but I've been writing on grief in my personal blog for a bit. If you don't follow me, you're probably just learning that on November 22nd, 2018, my father was killed in a house fire in my childhood home. That was exactly seven months ago from yesterday. If you're dealing with grief, my personal blog talks a bit about what I've been going through and how I'm dealing, but needless to say, it has been more difficult than I ever anticipated. Grief has no path, it's more like someone dragged you blindfolded through a maze covered in broken glass. It's painful, so painful, at times, but there are moments of joy, healing, compassion, and love. So, that's what I wanted to talk about.
When it first happened, I didn't know how to react. All I knew was I was going back to Nova Scotia to say goodbye to an urn and see a bunch of people I had not seen since I was 15ish. I actually, and still to my surprise, posted on Instagram what had happened and received a few messages about it being inappropriate to share it because it was insensitive. To them I say... this is my grief and if reaching out made me feel even the slightest bit better, you are no one to judge.
What I did NOT expect was the outpouring of love I received from the BOQ community. Baristas from the local cafe, bakers, brewers, farmers who I had just started getting to know, store owners, and just locals in the community who followed me. I had people reaching out EVERY day to give sympathy, to see if I needed anything, people even sent gift cards to help pay for our meals and offered us food!
How amazing is that? A community I didn't even grow up in rallied around a total stranger. I made friends with some of those who reached out and it has given a silver lining to this terrible tragedy.
Being a part of the military life means uprooting and rerouting every few years which comes with so many growing pains. Making friends is difficult and even more so when you're on the move every few years, so to be accepted into a community like this and have this place feel like home and be a part of my healing has been an amazing experience.
The Bay of Quinte is such a beautiful place and it will now hold a special and meaningful spot in my heart because I have to learn to live without my dad here, but the love and support I feel from the community has made that just a bit less lonely. Appreciate your community and be proud of the fantastic, hardworking, and kind souls who reside here, whether they're temporary like me, or life long like so many of those I now call friends.
-- Jenn Lindsay