MY HAT COLLECTION

I’ve worn a lot of different types of hats lately. Some fit better than others. My teaching hat was well worn out two years ago and was replaced by my retiree’s hat, my tourist hat, my papa hat and my cancer hat.

My retiree’s hat was actually a winter toque as I retired at the end of January in 2010. My first official day of retirement was eventful as I attended and won the annual Rogers’ Euchre Tournament in Stouffville, a fun get-together attended by a number of my former students and lots of the great Rogers’ clan. The only thing missing that evening was a life-size photo of Gordie Howe.

Monday February 1, my first weekday of retirement, was also especially memorable as Anne, my son Derek’s wife, travelled in from Hamilton with grandkids Noah and Audrey for a surprise visit. My retiree’s hat never felt better.

In mid-March last year, Terry and I got a chance to use our newly minted passports for the first time as we drove to Florida for a ten day stay with my sister Yvonne and her husband Mike. The weather was spectacular and we got the surprise of our lives when dolphins encircled us as we swam off the beach at Naples. Speaking of surprises, small alligators on the fairways of the golf course near Yvonne and Mike’s place were a bit disconcerting as was one of my errant golf shots that caromed off the patio door of a condo adjacent to the course. It was a great shot. My brother-in-law said he never had seen one quite like it nor had the four people sitting in their screened in patio. Yikes!

Terry and I continued to wear our tourist hats for a memorable one week holiday in New York City in August with Derek and his family. We also travelled to California last November to visit Terry’s sister Karen who lives just outside of Los Angeles. My tourist hat must have looked just right to Wendel, a Korean convenience store owner in Carlsbad, who started calling me ‘dude’ after only three days of my frequenting his store for a coffee and morning paper.

My papa hat is my favourite one. Our three grandkids spent last weekend with us as our daughter Janice was in town with 8 month old Isla for the week while her husband Kevin stayed in Ottawa to work on a basement reno. Derek’s wife was out of town for a conference in Montreal so he brought Noah and Audrey over to join the fun at Papa and Gramma’s. It was an exciting and exhausting weekend all at the same time. The time change was a killer as Derek’s kids were up at their usual 6 am Sunday morning…but kids, the clock now says 5 am.

Noah and I had some quiet time drawing in the afternoon as the younger kids had their naps. Noah is in JK but is quite enigmatic about what he actually does at school. I’m not sure if Dalton has mandated this secrecy because all I can get out of Noah is that his class sings O Canada in the morning and he takes Bus #1 after school. However, as he completed his first drawing, Noah printed his name neatly in the upper right hand corner of his paper. Sensing my chance to get an insight into the JK curriculum, I asked my grandson if he could print in name in small letters too.

“Sure Papa, I can do that for you,” he replied confidently.

He bent over his paper and started working diligently as I went to the counter for a glass of water. When I returned, he had done it, he had printed ‘NOAH’ in the smallest capital letters I had ever seen. I’m not sure whose smile was bigger, his or mine.

Our time with Isla revealed that she has an aspiring career as an electrical engineer or as a technician for Rogers Cable. We spent a good part of our week taking her tiny hands out of the VCR, her mouth away from the remote and her body out the tangle of wires behind the TV. We also made the happy discovery that babies don’t get sick from eating handfuls of fallen leaves.

Of course, my cancer hat is the one I wear most of the time these days. It doesn’t fit me quite as well as it did a few months ago and that’s a good thing. I was out doing some yard work today and it felt good to be able to exercise some real muscles. Although I hope I can put this hat away for good soon, I am thankful for the cancer hat. It has stretched me in ways that I could not have imagined and it has helped introduce me to some truly inspiring and courageous people. It is a hat that has changed my life, not just my appearance.