This morning I went to the Lake for the first time since early July. It was a beautiful morning, at least 10 degrees cooler than yesterday, the first weekend after Labor Day, sunny with some clouds rolling in, and simply pretty. Even though the leaves haven’t started turning yet and there is plenty of evidence that people are still taking advantage of the summer weather to barbecue and picnic, it is starting to feel like fall. Granted school is back in session, there are no lifeguards on duty, and there is pumpkin spice-themed merchandise advertised everywhere, so yes, it’s fall, y’all!

Chicago has been revitalizing the Southside for the past 20 years or more, which includes revamping the parks, beaches, and bridges along Lake Shore Drive and so I have a favorite place that I like to go. ‘My’ beach, Oakwood Beach, here in Chicago on Lake Michigan’s shore, has been one of my ‘constants’ this past decade and a touchstone, especially since COVID. I’ll divert on occasion, but this is my go to place. I like to park on the neighborhood side of DuSable Lake Shore Drive and use the 41st St. pedestrian bridge between Oakwood and 43rd Street to cross over. Oakwood Beach itself is protected by two small piers/breakwaters and I usually include both on my path. Depending on the year, season, day or weather, sometimes I’ll include a swim, some journaling, or a phone call, but almost always there is a walk and lots of photos taken.

Anyway, this morning’s walk found me in a very reflective mode, which I didn’t quite expect. As I walked, I realized that I’ll no longer be sharing these walks with two incredible women and one amazing dog, all of them water babies like me.

Three years ago, the weekend after Labor Day was officially the beginning of Mom’s pancreatic cancer journey, when she went into the ER suffering from jaundice. However, it would be another 9 months–Memorial Day 2024–before the cancer was officially diagnosed. Two years ago, Mom was midway through 6 months of chemotherapy which was working, bringing her cancer numbers down. A year ago at this time, Mom’s cancer was manageable and in a plateau. Her appetite, diabetes (a result of her cancer treatment), weight loss, and fatigue seemed manageable and our energizer bunny gave the illusion that this status could go on indefinitely. Unfortunately, that’s not how this cancer thing works and Mom passed on March 12, 2026. Today I wanted to share with Mom that I was listening to a good book she would have liked (Ruth Reichl’s Delicious!) and to send her pictures and videos of the Lake, knowing how much she would have loved having me share my adventures with her.

Since we moved back to Chicago in 2014, Bleu and I have spent a lot of time walking at the Lake–a LOT. He has been a constant on these adventures–walking with me, hanging out while I wrote or talked on the phone or made a new contact, protecting me. We made it to the Lake almost every morning we were in town during the Summer of 2023–such a special time. He loved playing in the water as much as I did that summer and we definitely got our steps in! He’s been my bestie, but he’s been slowing down the past two years, unable to go as far as he once could. We found out that he had a mass on his liver around Halloween and knew that his time with us was limited, but he was still up for a couple of trips to the Lake this year, making sure our newest addition, Sir Isaac ‘Newt’ Newton got a proper introduction. We had to say goodbye to our Little Boy Bleu on August 26th and this first trip to the Lake without him was tough.

On the afternoon of Thursday, September 3rd, I got a message from one of my dear Willikies Village, Antigua neighbors, Lois, extending condolences over the passing of my Dominica born/Antigua raised sister, Marcella Andre. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer on Antigua from 1992-1994 and when we first arrived on island, Nancy D. and I were placed with the Harris Family before we found our own housing. I lived in Willikies Village and stayed very close to the Harris Family during my service, as well as afterwords. There is so much I will write at a later date about Marcella and the Harris Family and pictures to share, but for now, I will say simply that I considered Marcella my baby sister and she considered me her big sis and while we would go stretches without talking to one another directly, we rarely dropped off of each other’s social media radar detectors for longer than a few months. Above all, we both knew what we meant to one another. Unfortunately, with everything that had been going on this summer in my world, I hadn’t realized that Marcella had gone radio silent. It turns out she had returned to Antigua from Dominica to undergo treatment for cancer. My dear baby sister, who introduced me to Dominica, the Nature Island, and was wise beyond her years, left us way too soon. Today, I was missing being able to share being at the Lake with Marcella and talking to her about how much her loss hurts.

While I was mourning the loss of Mom, Bleu, and Marcella deeply this morning, feeling the pain of their absences profoundly, I was also feeling immense gratitude that each of their journey’s had crossed with my own. Each has been so important to my world in such unique ways and on so many different layers that I feel truly blessed–a feeling I was not expecting this morning when I set out for my walk.