This is going to make me cry to write, but I'm going to write it anyways. True blue blogging here.

Sometimes I have to write from the heart about things that are important enough to share, and aside from all my other random ponderings, this story is one of those heartwarming events that show what is so good about humanity.

When we went for our cruise to the Mediterrannean, I met a riveting, warm, smart, funny, confident woman and her daughter. When the cruise was over we stayed in touch in spite of her being from another country, on Facebook.

This past month, there was a tragedy in my region as one of the beloved daughters of the Cowichan First Nation was missing and found murdered. I was posting the search on my facebook when my friend from the cruise saw it on her page as she follows me there periodically, and was moved enough to contact the newspaper editor for the Cowichan paper. She's been in touch with the family through a close friend and has passed on her intentions in regards to the tragic loss of their daughter.

My friend from the cruise is setting up a scholarship fund in the murdered woman's memory so that her life will not be for nothing.

My condolences are empty in comparison to the surging need of the family, to heal from this horrendous experience, for the mother, for the family, for the community and for the entire region. Cowichan is 'the Warm Land' but it should not be warm because the blood of its women runs across it.


For time immemorial, there will be a scholarship fund set up so that young people in the Cowichan nation can become the people who make the differences when it comes to stewardship and overcoming challenges.

I am so in awe of my friend. The heart it took to extend herself to this level ... a scholarship fund in the name of the lost daughter. :(

Told you you'd cry.