Skip to main content

Rose's Cantina Reaches One Million Readers! Time for a Margarita.





A note to my readers on the occasion of my million view milestone. 

People become bloggers for many different reasons. They want to express themselves creatively. They want to make money. They want to become influencers.

I began blogging to save my mental health. 

It all began back in 2009 when I published an essay in the Globe and Mail entitled: We're Living the $10 Life. In the essay, I wrote about the serious downturn my life had taken after a bitter divorce that left me reeling. Even though I had recoupled with the wonderful Scott, we were barely making ends meet.

It was a terrible time for both of us even though we had enjoyed successful careers in the past. When we met, Scott was living in misery. He'd taken a buyout and left his career as a CBC cameraman to pay off an abusive ex-wife. I was a freelance speechwriter, and I had lost most of my income because I was a Liberal living in Stephen Harperland. 

Together we were raising three teenagers, cannibalizing tropic fish and a gaggle of dogs.



It could have been a sitcom if it wasn't so sad. 

The article turned out to be a big hit for me but it was highly polarizing. Many readers left me warm and thoughtful messages while others left comments that were extremely hurtful. I was called every name in the book: a loser, a complainer, a waste of air. If my life was so bad, why didn't I kill myself?

That sort of thing. 

I didn't take it personally. In fact I realized I had hit a nerve.

So I decided to try out this blogging thing, and immediately set up an account with Blogger. That was 1,200 posts ago. 

Blogging is invigorating. It involves unlimited navel gazing. It illicits powerful hits of seratonin at all times of the night and day. 

Looking back, I cringe at my own self-involvement, and often mean-spirited postings. I was angry and hurt and sometimes frankly mentally unwell at times. That is why it is always good to go back and delete some shit. Which is the other upside of blogging -- it's not like being published a newspaper some place -- you can always delete it. (Though of course, not really.)

Back at the beginning, I found it so freeing to write about my life, its ups, its downs. Poverty. My life as a single mother. The constantly evolving puppy pile. 

What began as a daily rant has evolved into something a bit more gentile. I got tired of listening to myself. It was dragging me down. 

 And so I began to write more essays about the people in my life including my friends Roger and Jennette who allowed me to record their very strange life, including their gruesome health challenges. Chronicling Jennette's terrible journey through cancer changed me forever, and pinged the hearts of so many readers. She truly was an inspiration to me and remains in my heart today.



Six years ago, I was invited on another terrible journey being taken by my cousins John and Cindy whose daughter Ashley disappeared in Salmon Arm after a fight with her boyfriend. The Simpsons allowed me into their nightmare where I rode shotgun through all the searches and heartaches.

I stopped blogging altogether for months at a time because I was so damned depressed that I couldn't write. Maybe it was Trump, maybe it was just the whole injustice of the world around me. Maybe it was because I couldn't save the day, make things better. People died. Children remained unfound. Killers were still on the loose.

And then I got a phone call from John Simpson in early December saying that Ashley had been found and her boyfriend was in jail charged with her murder. 



As sad as the ending was, I realized that my blogging about Ashley had made a difference. For better or worse, I realized that my blog had gotten the attention of the media, the cops, the community. 

Being a pain in the ass wasn't a bad thing after all. 

And so I made a turn, and a decision.

I was going to do for others what I did for the Simpsons. I was going to help those families out there looking for their loved ones. 

In just the past few months, I've already written about Pamela Jones, the retired school teacher who was murdered 10 years ago in Salmon Arm. Her killers have never been brought to justice, and her son Lance continues to fight for victims' rights.

And just this past month, I decided to take on the case of Katrina Blagdon, the army veteran who is still missing in St. Catharines, Ontario. 



Someone has to speak for the missing. Someone has to be a pain in the ass of law enforcement and the bad guys who seem to get away with hurting our women folk. Someone has to give the media, and the government a kick in their lazy butts, and remind them that every missing person is a wife, a daughter, a mother, a husband, a friend. 

And that someone is me.

I want to thank all of the readers who have supported this blog over the years, who took the time to click on the link, who took even more time to leave me a kind note. 

As this blog reached the milestone of one million readers early this morning, I couldn't help but feel grateful for the kindness of friends and strangers. My readers are awesome. 

And there's something else. 

Believe it or not, blogging saved my life. 

Now it's time for a party!





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ashley Simpson: Don't Let Her Die in Vain

  Six years ago, I was combing through my Facebook and I saw post from my cousin Julie Major. Her brother and his wife were frantically looking for their daughter Ashley who just days before had Facetimed her mom saying she was planning to return to her home in Niagara. Ashley never made it home. She was murdered in cold blood in her home in Salmon Arm then buried in a nearby field. It would be five and a half years before her body was located, and her boyfriend was charged with second degree murder.  Today, Ashley's urn has a sacred spot in her parents' home, and Derek Favell is in jail awaiting trial by judge and jury. The trial is expected to go into next year sometime. This has been an agonizing journey for Ashley's friends and family. The pain has never stopped, and the wounds are broken open every time the family has to sit through a series of pre-trial proceedings. Fortunately, this ordeal will end but the pain will never wane for the people, including me, who have b...

Ashley Simpson: A Father Remembers

I have asked Ashley Simpson's family and friends to give us a glimpse into the life she lived before going missing nearly a month ago. Here is how her father John remembers his sweet girl. Ashley was a treat when she came into this world, a smashing 9lbs 8 ounces with a  head full of hair and nails that needed to be clipped. She has made many friends in her journey of life and continues to make them as we speak. She has made this world a better place by her love of mankind and this place we call Earth; unfortunately this life she has lived hasn't been the best for her. She has suffered through unbearable pain and suffering through her menstrual cycles. She has cysts on her ovaries that make those 10 days a living hell. She had one of her ovaries removed when she was just 14; the other they won't take out till she is 40 or older. Years of hell for my Ashley. I so feel her pain every month but she doesn't quit, doesn't give in.   That'...

What Bell isn't telling you about Fibe TV

Update: This week, we switched back to Rogers after spending far too long using Bell's crappy television service. For those with Bell, read and weep. For those considering Bell, think twice even if you hate Rogers. RS I've always been an early technology adapter. I had a Betamax. That tells you everything (if you're over 50 at least). My first computer was a "Portable". It weighed 40 pounds and I had to lug it around town on a gurney. I've been through probably 15 computers in my lifetime. Apple is the best. It's also too expensive so I have a piece of shit HP, the one I'm writing this blog on. I've had cable, internet and now Netflix. American Netflix . That's how far ahead of the curve I am. I get all the newspapers for free. How? I disabled my cookies so they can't track me when I'm on the newspaper sites. Even the New York Times hasn't cottoned on to that trick. Hahaha. That will be a fifty buck consulting fee. Bein...