On a shared love of puzzles

Hello Everyone, 

I've been doing a lot of crosswords lately. It's a fun way to start your morning. Grab a coffee and work a crossword for a bit after breakfast and before you hit the trails. I'm a little particular about what kind of crossword I want to do. Too hard and too easy are equally bad, so I try to find a balance. I picked up a copy of the Vancouver Sun this morning as I found they have both the NYT crossword and a Canadian one. I'm somewhat irregular in when I get interested in these kinds of puzzles, so I had forgotten that the Sun had both. But sitting down with the paper brought back a very good memory. My great aunt Joan was a crossword enthusiast. When I first got into it, a number of years ago now, I spent an afternoon with her, going over the Globe and Mail's Saturday puzzle. She was well ahead of me with the clues she had already solved, but we had a nice time going back and forth to finish it.  Joan was a very positive influence on my life and I miss her dearly. I like to think that were she still with us, she'd be quite enthusiastic about my current adventure. After that memory came to me, I spent awhile this evening walking along the shore and going over memories of her. I think it would mean a great deal to Joan to know that we, her family, still think about her. I don't believe that there's a place where our souls go after we die. But that's not to say that I don't believe in souls entirely. One of my favourite sayings, credited to Irvin Yalom, is that you die twice. Once when they bury you, and once when someone says your name for the last time. I believe that's where the soul lay, in the memories of the people around us. And in that way, Joan is yet with me, through a shared love of puzzles and gardening, in her influence on my outlook on life, and in a thousand happy memories that come back to me still. 

Wes