Two years. Today Jennifer and Sid and I visited the cemetery. They have added a memorial garden with a serene path through the wooded hills, just uphill from Matthew's grave. A beautiful spot. We left a stone from Paris, a stone from Baba Eva from Winnipeg, and a stone from the West Coast (Pacific Ocean).

We have come to a quieter space in our grief, but still have goals we want to accomplish. We have started planning a Memorial concert to raise money for the Carleton U. Film Studies bursary to feature Emmanuel, Stef, Lorraine, Roxanne Potvin, and anyone else who would like to join us. We are talking to Carleton about holding it in March on campus. More news to come.

I have not been on the web site since March but still have plans to make it make it more complete. My next step is to arrange some professional help.

We are each exploring what we learned from Matthew's life and Matthew's death. Being open to connecting with others. Being open to learning from others. Living in the moment. Focusing on the positives. Getting fit. Travelling. Listening to the Allman Brothers, Magic Sam, John Mayall, and, of course, Stevie Ray.

We have been back to Ottawa three more times, March, July and October. In March we attended Carleton's Bursary and Scholarship Donors event. Curtis Crokam, the first receipient was unable to attend but other donors told wonderful stories about who their funds honoured. We also met with some of the Ottawa "gang".

July was Mikey's Bar Mitzvah. In his speech about faith, her spoke about Matthew and his death and its impact on his life (to be posted soon).

In October, we travelled to Ottawa for Thanksgiving with Sid's mom, Eve. Steph and Emmanuel and the Buckshi's were able to join us and David's family. Lorraine and Emmanuel were able to touch base about performing in March.

We also have trips to Vancouver and Paris for Sid and I and Italy for Jennifer. On each trip we have built in some Matthew moments. In Vancouver, we shared stories with the many cousins there. We also had a wonderful dinner in Yaletown with Nick and Coleen (Adrian was at the restaurant working!). In Paris, we visited Jim Morrison's grave and lit a candle at Notre Dame.

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Change of plans. Peach's art show is that night so we will plan to see you there around 9:00 p.m. and go for a beer afterwards. Here is the flyer.

Please join us at David and Susie's on Thursday, March 24 in the evening. We would like to catch up with everyone and celebrate the awarding of the first Matthew Karlinsky Memorial Bursary.

Please spread the word as we don't have everyone's email. The address is 3746 Revelstoke Drive and the phone number 613-733-0944 also my cell phone is 416-949-7623. Let us know if you can come. If you can't make it please send us a note with your news.

Jennifer has been accepted to Sheridan College and will be taking the Human Resource Management course in September. Sid has finished his mindfulness meditation course and attends a meditation group weekly. He makes lots of CDs to give away and has started watching movies again. Jennifer and I have made getting in shape part of our way of following in Matthew's path.

The information is also on www.matthewkarlinskymemorial.com. The first thing you see now when you go to the site is Colleen's portrait of Matthew. We have had it framed and will put it up on our wall soon.

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Roxanne Potvin, the blues singer who sang for Matthew at the memorial event in Ottawa, was nominated for Best New Blues artist and we met Colleen and her friend at the Silver Dollar to see Roxanne perform. Her career is definitely taking off. She is mentioned in a Toronto Star article (to be linked) and has her own web site. She will be back at the Silver Dollar on February 5, 2005. If you are in Toronto, please join us.

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The spot in the cemetery is quite beautiful, and when we visited in the fall the colours were magnificent. Each time we have visited we have found beautiful offerings from Matthew's Toronto friends by the gravestone. Most recently, we had to trudge through some serious snow to get to the gravestone, but our efforts were rewarded with a framed 8 X 10 poem signed by about 25 people dedicated to Matthew. It gives us a wonderful feeling to know that in his 20 years that he touched so very many people to care enough to visit the cemetery and leave such beautiful offerings. We have a sense of how difficult it must be for young people, 20 and 21, to think of someone their own age, a friend, buried in a cemetery, and still make the effort to go there and visit. As they would say, awesome... Link to Poem we found at Matthew's graveside.

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Please join us at David and Susie's house in Ottawa on Saturday night December 11 after 7:00 p.m. for beer, chili and sharing. Parents, lovers and friends welcome. We look forward to seeing you. Please spread the word as we don't have everyone's email. The address is 3746 Revelstoke Drive and the phone number 613-733-0944

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Today was a peaceful day of reflection and remembrances. We have been touched by the many cards, flowers, calls and emails reminding us that our loss is shared. The sky cried with us today as we sat in the cemetery and walked through the woods. The fall colours were like those on the day of the funeral but softer, muted by the grey skies. Tonight we posted Sid's remembrances.

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The anniversary of Matthew's death is coming soon . In the Jewish tradition, the anniversary of a death is the Yartzeit, a day to remember and pay tribute to a life. In the Hebrew calendar Matthew's Yartzeit is 29th of Tishrei or this year, the evening of October 13 and the day of October 14. In the English calendar the date is October 24. Please join us in lighting a candle for Matthew. We plan to visit the cemetery (you can make a virtual visit through this web site) and spend the afternoon walking in a peaceful, autumn coloured forest.

This has been a year of pain and joy. Our feelings of loss have been joined by pride in learning about Matthew's contributions to the lives of others. We have been priviledged to spend time with Matthew's friends. We have learned from the value Matt placed on making and keeping connections to reach out to our extended family and make new friends. (We will be in touch with the Ottawa gang about a visit in early December.)

The Bursary in Matt's name continues to grow with over $1,200 now available to a Film Studies student at Carleton. (There is information about the Bursary farther down on this page.)

I continue to work on this web site and have recently added Part One of a Matthew's Music List and a tribute from Steph that he wrote for the Memorial Service in Ottawa.

We hope that this has been a year of growing for you as well. Growing peace, growing connections, growing appreciation of the value of life and living this moment. Matthew and our relationship with him will always be a part of each of our lives.