Ten Years (Or, A Christmas Miracle)

This time ten years ago, I was on a plane. 

I was flying from Edmonton to Montreal, via Chicago. I had two huge suitcases and a backpack containing all the stuff I hadn't had put in storage with a moving company, or pre-shipped to my best friend, whose back room I would be moving into that night. I had had a miserable three years in Edmonton. I had just lost yet another shitty job, and I couldn't face looking for another one in that city.  At the same time, my mother was sick, and possibly dying. What had started out as a Christmas trip home had turned into a move.

( Cut for length, angst and hospital talk. But there's a happy ending, honest. )