Just read you blog and I had to answer. Life unfortuntely is about paycheques. I am now 61 years old. After working for all my life since the age of 16 I am now retired from the career that gave me more than I ever expected. Some 33 years ago I woke up one morning to find that I was suddenly a single mother of two very small boys, 5 months and 2 years. I had asked their dad to leave after the second black eye. We did not see him again for 30 years. I found myself on welfare and remember laying in bed in the middle of the night and wondering how the hell did I get here. A year later I ended up working in the welfare office as a gopher that ended up with me being given the job as a Financial Assistance Worker. I was suddenly the person on the other side of the desk. I was damn good at my job as I knew first hand what my clients were experiencing.

I talked a woman out of taking her life one morning when she called as I was cooking pancakes for my children. I sat with one of my clients at the hospital while arrangements were being made to put him into rehab and convinced him he was doing the right thing.

I even went to the funeral home with another client whos daughter had just died of a drug overdose 200 miles away and we arranged to bring her body home. The momès heart was broken and so was mine. Wayne these things are not made up, they happened after one of the darkest moments of my life. I spent 30 some years helping people as I had been helped. But my cameras were never far away. They were my lifeline and I know what you mean when you said that you experienced melacollie. Not everytime will your lens fill up with the magic that we both know. It will come back. Make a life around your passion if you have too but never feel as if your mission has failed.

I am now a Location Scout with the BC Film Industry as well as branching out into Location Management. This happended because I have never layed my cameras down. I raised three children, wrote and published two books, and just kept on keeping on.

Rally My friend, make some money at your job, buy some new camera equipment when you can but do not ever lay those camers down.

There will always be open roads but sometimes it is not the road that brings us our happiness. Find it my friend.

My trip was a great experience even though it wasn’t as long as I had hoped. I met lots of great people and had a good time getting shots I would have never gotten sitting at home. Life goes on, things change, we’ll soon what’s in store for me next.

Take care and I’ll stay in touch,
All the best,
W