TA Loeffler's Adventures that Move

Howdy,

It’s near the end of the first week of my Camp Two training phase and it’s been an interesting week of activity and reflection.  This week was a bit of a rest week with a few parts of the training program forgiven to reduce the intensity for the week to a level of 60%.  The intensity grows from week to week and culminates in either a 90% or 100% week for the last one of each phase.  Having just come off the final 100% week of Camp One, I noticed a pull to want to continuously ramp up the intensity, however my past experience of overtraining tells me otherwise and I did my best to modulate those impulses.

I saw someone’s Facebook status update this week listing this familiar quote by Albert Einstein, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”  It got me thinking about how I was training for Everest and evaluating what I was doing the same and what I was doing differently than in 2007.  When talking to former expedition teammates or mountaineering acquaintances, I frequently ask them the same question, “What will you do differently or the same this time round?”  I appreciate hearing reflections on their experiences and feel I can learn from lots by listening.

Hopefully by now, your curiosity is piqued and you are asking yourself, “What is TA doing differently this time?”  Here’s some insights into what I am up to…

Nutrition and fueling–I am being very intention and mindful about both what I am eating and the timing of meals and snacks.  I decided a few months ago that I wanted there to “be less of me to haul up the mountain.”  Whether I am carrying weight in my backpack or on my body, it’s still weight I have to propel up the peak so I set a goal of losing some body fat while preserving and building muscle/strength.

With the support of Allied Health Services at Memorial University of Newfoundland (http://www.mun.ca/hkr/ahs/about/), I’ve met with Holly Grant and she helped me set up specific parameters to use to attain this important goal.  Using her sport nutrition expertise, she’s chosen a calorie load for me to hit each day with specific goals related to the macronutrients of carbohydrates (55%), proteins (20%), and fats (25%).  I measure all my food and enter it into a training log–it takes about an hour each day to do all the logging of both my training and food but I’ve come to see it as valuable information and mini celebration of each meal well chosen.  Holly checks it frequently and gives advice on how to tweak the foods I am using for fuel.  As a result of this mindfulness, I notice I am eating very delicious meals that are made from whole, fresh ingredients, am eating slower, refueling directly after exercise with a mix of carbs and protein, and thinking food is a marvelous thing!

Rest and Relaxation–With hindsight, I realized that I went to Everest in 2007 having done too much and having slept too little…too much training, too much public speaking, too much of everything and not enough rest.  My goal for this attempt is to go to the mountain well rested and very eager to work hard.  In light of this, I have set a sleep goal of eight hours per night–this is a challenge since I naturally seem to need seven hours.  Like parents, with an early morning toddler, who need some extra rest, I have a morning curfew and don’t allow myself to get out of bed until I have reached eight hours of “horizontal” time even if this means lying quietly or meditating.  With Marian’s coaching, I’ve taught myself to go back to sleep in the early morning rather than rev the jets of my mind’s engine with everything I need to get done.  I have simplified my life greatly and reduced my expectations about how much and what I can get done.  I continuously ask the question of “Will this help me climb Everest or can it wait until after the climb?”  I regularly say “No” these days…a relatively new word in my vocabulary.

Enlisting Expertise–Before the launch of Everest 2010 Mountain of Learning last fall, I cobbled together a sponsorship invitation package for it.  Using a past template, I tried to put together something that might work.  Soon after that event, I met with Deborah Bourden at AppleCore Interactive (http://www.applecore.ca/) and she said her team could help me out.  Yesterday, their rendition of my sponsorship invitation got uploaded to my website and printed off…it’s stunning and beautiful and a reminder that there are times, I need to stretch and ask for the assistance of others.  Given my shyness, sometimes it’s easy to do something myself than walk through the fear to ask for help.  Please visit my sponsorship page (http://www.taloeffler.com/sponsorship.asp) and see AppleCore’s excellent work.  If you have any contacts that might be interesting in the benefits of sponsorship, please let me know.  I need your help in making such connections.

A few weeks back, I had the pleasure of doing a training session with Phil Alcock at Core Health Spa (http://www.corehealthspa.ca/).  After that session, I reflected on the strength training that I was doing.  Again, I had turned to past training regimes, read a few books, and put together a workable program that I was doing on my own in the gym.  Given my goal of going to the mountain as physically and mentally strong as I can be, I realized another change was in order.  Even though it meant a financial stretch, I knew I wanted to work with Phil intensively until I head off for the mountain.  He has the expertise to create a varied, demanding, and specific training program for me.  We worked together three times this week and he had me jumping up stairs two and three at a time, climbing down stairs on hands and feet, balancing on an upside down BOSU, and producing copious amounts of sweat.  With Phil pushing me, I work harder than I would on my own.

Similarly, a few months ago, in a wonderful exchange of a delicious dinner for expertise, my colleague Fabien Basset (http://www.mun.ca/hkr/research/) set up my training plan for the last four months before the mountain.  An exercise physiologist with expertise in both hypoxic training and coaching, he set up a periodized program to have me peak at the right time.  In programs I designed myself, I tended to peak early and risk overtraining.  He revamped the hypoxic training program into three sessions a week that utilize hypoxic exercise intervals followed by normoxic recovery intervals.  What does this mean in English?  It means I hike on the treadmill at a 15% grade wearing a 30 pound pack while wearing a mask that channels less than the regular amount of oxygen in room air for set intervals of intense work then remove the mask for recovery.  I’ll do a future update explaining the science and reasoning behind such a strategy but for now, I appreciate having access to Fabien’s vast expertise.

Climbing Team–In choosing my outfitter for this year’s attempt, I elected to go with Peak Freaks (http://peakfreaks.com/).  As is my practice, I like to “date before going steady” so I climbed with them in the fall of 2008 on Pumori.  I found I liked the small team ambiance and cohesion.  I am thrilled that the team’s leadership for next spring’s climb will be Tim Rippel and Hugo Searle (both of whom I climbed with in 2008).  A third guide I haven’t met yet will join them.  Additionally, I had the privilege of climbing with four of my teammates on that same climb.  For most of my climbs, I am meeting my colleagues on day one of the climb.  It will be great to already have a foundation on which to build a deeper camaraderie and trust.

On many of my climbs, I am the solo woman.  As a hockey player, I am superstitious (I always put my left skate on first etc. and I watch for omens or rituals that seem to contribute to winning and propagate them).  There are two other women on Peak Freak’s Everest 2010 team.  When I look back, I can see that whenever there as been another woman with me on a seven summits climb, I have summitted.  No guarantee but a wonderful omen and an opportunity for a different team climate than last time where I was outnumbered 60 to one.

Trekking Team–I am so excited and grateful to have company from home for the trek to base camp in 2010.  A climb of Everest is a long and intense 2.5-month group living experience and so it will be fantastic to have a team of four friends from Newfoundland trekking in with the expedition.  For the trek, I will be joined by Marian Wissink, Nadia Schenk, Natelle Tulk, and Jacinta McGrath.  All have been brave enough to follow me through the Grand Canyon and now are taking the challenge a little further and higher by coming along to Nepal.  We had our first almost-full team training session last night in the dark on the back side of Signal Hill.  We did hiking intervals and placed rocks on the summit cairn to mark the beginning of our shared journey.  Sharing the training and the climb with the WOKies in 2008 on Kilimanjaro was a life-changing event and I’m so glad to have such a fine group of women join me for the trek.

I realize it was a reflective week because I had two interviews about the upcoming climb.  One was with long-time Everest chronicler and climber, Alan Arnette (http://www.alanarnette.com/), and one with Bryhanna Greenough of The Scope (one of our local weeklies)…each interview provided thought-provoking questions and an opportunity to share my preparations for the climb and that got me thinking about what I was doing differently and the pulls to do the same as before (and expect different results a la Einstein).

A question for you…What do you need to do differently?

You can check out Alan’s interview with me on his website (http://bit.ly/4Kz2LM) or his Outside Magazine blog on Monday (http://bit.ly/4GXoWf).

Keep an eye on The Scope (http://thescope.ca/) for Bryhanna’s story.

Thanks for coming along on this Mountain of Learning,

TA

Happy New Year!

Wow!  It’s 2010 and today is a palindrome (01022010), as an odometer moment queen* that’s pretty exciting!  (* An odometer moment queen is someone who is fond of numerical fun such as the time 12:34:56 and car odometer moments such as 1234567).  So it’s a fresh year and a fresh decade with a hip numerical address.

The new year is so often filled with thoughts of newness: new dreams, new goals, new behaviours, new semesters…but on the dawn of the new year, I found myself pondering more about the past than the future.  I’ve recently been reading Julie Angus’ “Rowboat in a Hurricane” and during big storms on their crossing of the Atlantic in a very small boat, they would put out a sea anchor.  The sea anchor, shaped much like a drogue parachute, helps keep the boat oriented correctly in storms so it doesn’t breach to the waves.

So that got me to thinking…about sea anchors and regular anchors…and about how one was to keep you firmly from moving and the other was for use during a storm though I guess if you were close enough to shore, you could use a regular anchor to hold the boat during a storm.  So anchors can both hold you steady in one place or perhaps enable you to survive vicious sea states…then I began to wonder about the past…was the past an anchor that holds us in one place or guidance for when storms hit?

For me, I latched onto the sea anchor analogy…that the past provides stability for launching forth into what is coming.  I think there can be temptation to anchor ourselves to what we know we can do or where we are comfortable but I know for me, I’m not satisfied staying in harbour, that I need and want to venture out to get new views and new vistas.  I spent the afternoon at The Rooms, the Provincial Archive, Museum, and Art Gallery.  Many of the exhibits celebrated the expeditions and sea voyages of Captain Bob Bartlett so perhaps that’s why anchors and setting out are occupying my mind.

In many ways the journey from 2007 to 2010 has been the length of a heartbeat and in other ways, the length of several decades.  I can’t believe three years has passed and less than three months remain until I return to Everest.  I find myself looking back and looking forward at the same time.  Reflecting on my past climb and the lessons that I’ve extracted from it while at the same time planning and training for going back while all the while trying to remember to be present now, in this moment, in this time.

Yesterday as I pulled my tire up Signal Hill once again and the exertion forced me to turn my eyes down to the asphalt beneath my feet, I was very present in each step.  I noticed the small pebbles that would roll out from beneath my foot, the instant scraping crescendo of picking up a bottle cap beneath the tire, a cigarette butt, a brief skiff of wind across my cheek and the instant release from the bondage of lactic acid upon a momentary stop.  Given two trips up a week, I imagine that I will become even more familiar with the micro-world that unfolds with each step up the hill.  In those moments of intense physical outlay, I do find small pockets of attention to imagine the Lhotse Face or final traverse and try to deposit some of that physical work in a reserve bank that I can draw on when I actually am on the Lhotse Face or in the Khumbu Icefall.  Kudos go out to Michelle Young for having the courage to pull a tire up with me on Friday and special thanks to Marian for her keeping our tires safe from turning cars!

I had a excellent week of training–it was the last week of Camp One.  Monday marks the beginning of Camp Two with an increased emphasis on strength training and the beginning of hypoxic training on the Go2Altitude system.  I was able to witness and recognize several training gains this week and that’s always a wonderful gift that helps fuel the further hard work that the next month will deliver.

Thanks to all who’ve been holding Oma in their thoughts.  My family is keeping a close eye on her and she’s be able to continue living where she’s to for now.  Thanks for joining me on the dawn of this new year and decade.  I wish you and yours all the best in 2010 and beyond.

Have a good week,

TA

It’s been a quiet relaxing few days around here as I timed my training to take a few rest days around the holidays. I had trained eight days solid since returning from Edmonton so spending Christmas Eve and Dad doing little physical activity was a welcome break. I hope the best of the holiday season found you and your family over the past week.

My training is divided into four phases named Camp One-Four after the camps we will us on Mount Everest next spring. I have one more week in Camp One before moving up to Camp Two. Each phase introduces new goals and new training activities and is periodized to gradually increase the workload. As my training progresses and the time to the climb becomes shorter, training or other injuries become more of a concern because there is less time to get them healed before the climb.

I aim to treat training injuries as they arise and be cognizant of staying healthy in all respects of my life. Some ask if I will give up hockey and the answer is “No.” It’s a critical part of my life for both training and mental health. I will play less aggressively and will do my best to avoid areas on the ice that are more likely to create injuries (i.e. racing for the puck near the end boards).

Along with my own precautions, I have privileged to have the support of a great body care team. Last week I said I would introduce the folks who are being kind enough to support by Everest efforts by donating their services/expertise. Dr. Amy Butt, Director of Allied Health Services at Memorial University of Newfoundland, mobilized the first group of folks. (http://www.mun.ca/hkr/ahs/about/) Allied Health Services offers a variety of testing and professional services to members of the Memorial University community and the general public.

Through Allied Health Services, Todd Row, a certified athletic therapist, is treating me. Athletic therapists have training and expertise in treating and rehabilitating athletes and getting them back into the game/back to training as quickly as possible. Todd keeping an eye on some of my nagging training injuries that seem to keep popping up (oh how I miss my 39 year old body:-). Todd uses a combination of modalities such as ultrasound, electrical stimulation, assisted stretches and exercise prescription to treat various owies. (highly technical term).

Also, through Allied Health Services, Mike Pollard, a certified massage therapist and expert in sports massage, is keeping my legs limber and able to handle the huge training load. Since flexibility has never been one of my strengths, Mike’s work on my legs is a real help in staying the training course.

Finding the right balance between energy expenditure (training) and energy intake (eating) is always a challenge. For me right now it is more tricky than usual because some days I am burning close to 2000 calories in training–that can make for some interesting appetite spikes. Fortunately, I have Holly Grant, sports nutritionist, on my team. Working through Allied Health Services, Holly assists athletes in finding the right balance of macro and micronutrients to maximize performance. I log meals into software that Holly checks in and offers suggestions on how I can make substitutions in what I am eating to hit the balance of nutrients she is suggesting.

Through Allied Health Services, I also have access to VO2 Max testing, Basal Metabolic Rate testing, and underwater weighing–all of which are being used to track the effectiveness of training. As January is often a time for setting up resolutions and making positive lifestyle changes, I highly recommend Allied Health Services if you need some expertise in bringing some of those changes to fruition.

Along with massage and athletic therapy, I also have Janice Drover of Core Insight (http://www.coreinsight.ca/), looking after my body. Janice is a certified Sports Chiropractor who uses Active Release Technique in treating my injuries/sore spots. Janice spent a year treating Olympic athletes in Calgary and will be heading out to Vancouver to treat Paralympians during their games in March so I know I am in good hands. Within the Core Insight office, there are several other practitioners so they are also a good resource for New Year’s Resolutions.

For me, mountaineering is a team activity. I am grateful to my pre-climb “Body Team” and appreciate their generosity, support, and care. On the mountain, there is the base camp medical clinic to draw upon as well as having some doctors and a dentist on our climbing team (I’m hoping not to use their services very much or at all this time!!!).

Time to go pull a tire up Signal Hill!

Take good care,

TA

Happy Solstice to All,

After an intense month, this week was indeed much lighter and I look forward to the return of more illumination day by day over the next months.  I always enjoy celebrating the two solstices but somehow always wish that the Summer Solstice was in August instead of June. 🙂

Air Canada got us home on Monday and even fed us along the way!  I’m grateful to our neighbours, Brian and Mona for keeping an eye out on our place and shoveling out the car and sidewalk after a big storm so we didn’t have to come back to a daunting pile of the white stuff.  Marian’s daughter, Maaike, kept the plants alive and I appreciated the many sympathy cards waiting in the mailbox.  It was good to get home and be surrounded by friends.

Much of my week was spent getting back into the swing of training.  As I look back over the past six months, I can see that many factors have conspired to keep me from training too hard or too long.  It’s time now, however, to pump up the training volume and become a “lean, mean climbing machine.”  I’ve been working with several folks to both create and support my training.  In designing my program, I’ve been keeping in mind the constellation of strengths and skills I will need.

Over the next twelve weeks, I’ll be working hard to further develop, sharpen, and strengthen my aerobic endurance, anaerobic endurance, upper, lower, and core body strength, respiratory endurance, flexibility, hiking with a pack, and mountain skills.  It’s a tall order but Everest is an even taller one!  Having been on the mountain, I have a better sense of the demands and challenges of both the terrain and the altitude.

My aerobic endurance will come through step aerobics classes with a pack, some incline treadmill hiking with a pack, and outdoor hiking with a pack.  My pack will become my almost constant companion as I’ll always be carrying one on the mountain-it is also a way to increase my workload without running (each week the amount of weight in my pack will increase by a small amount–right now I am carrying 25 pounds).  Challenges to my anaerobic endurance come through ice hockey and incline treadmill intervals developed by Dr. Fabien Basset at Memorial University of Newfoundland. 

Body strength will be build through a combination of weight training and functional fitness training.  Respiratory endurance will come through training hypoxically using the Go2Altitude system as well as by using the Spirotiger to strengthen my diaphragm.  Finally, I’ll continue to coax flexibility out of my tight tissues through some yoga (Have I mentioned that when they were giving out hamstrings I was at the back of the line and got a very short set).   🙂 

I also realize that having honed mountain skills makes me faster and therefore safer on the mountain so I’ll also dedicate some training time to knot tying, fixed rope ascension, ladder practice, rappelling, and tire pulling.  I did my first tire pull halfway up Signal Hill this week–it such a good workout and reminds me constantly of the absolute humbling that high altitude hands out.  When pulling the tire, I am moving very slowly, almost breathless, and on the verge of vomiting–just like climbing the Khumbu icefall.

This week I also had the pleasure of catching up with Phil Alcock at the Core Health Spa (http://www.corehealthspa.ca.)  We worked out together yesterday and I was reminded of the intense functional fitness workout that Phil can dole out.  If you’re in St. John’s and need someone to pusher you harder, he’s your man!

All this hard work will tax my body to the max so I have a team of folks who will help me both avoid and treat any training injuries that may occur.  I’ll introduce that team in next week’s update.  Thanks again to all for your support and care this past month (and beyond)–it’s meant so much to me.  I would ask that this week you keep my Oma in your thoughts and prayers as she had a small stroke and we’re hoping she’ll continue to be able to live independently.

Enjoy this holiday season in whatever way you celebrate it.

TA

Good Morning,

I’m up early to write from a different chair.  It’s been a big week on the metaphorical mountain and I know forming and sharing the words will help me reflect and process the deeper meaning of it all.

People had said I would know when it was time to come.  I was checking in several times a day with Edmonton, watching airfares, trying to train, and seeing how Marian was doing.  Dad moved onto the palliative care unit at the Grey Nuns Hospital on Sunday.  Mom used to be the night supervisor there for 20 years and though it meant a longer drive to get there, she knew Dad would receive the best care. 

And then as people said I would, I knew it was time.  We got seats on a most windy Wednesday morning and flew out.  Shawn picked us up at the airport and we went right to the hospital.  When we walked into his room, Dad woke and was able to greet us.  He was finally comfortable when lying still and would rouse when called to but was sleeping the rest of the time.

Soon after we arrived, a succession of visitors arrived and we spent much of the afternoon telling stories of Dad’s life and the ways he impacted ours.  There was many stories of hunting, skiing, and times at the cabin.  One of Dad’s favourite things was napping on the couch at the lake and I imagined him laying on “his” couch napping as we spun yarn after yarn.  Later in the afternoon, Rayne came to visit and helped the nurse give her grandfather his medication and got a chance to ask lots of questions about Opa’s care.

Wednesday was hard but I took solace in being surrounded by caring friends and family and in the fact that laughter was being doled out in about the same ratio as tears.  We were celebrating my Dad, and since he loved to laugh, naturally many of the stories made us chuckle.  We met with Dad’s doctors and though they couldn’t give us a timeline, they hinted at a few weeks.  Having started our day in Newfoundland at 3:30 a.m., we fell into bed exhausted that evening.

The next morning we headed back to the hospital.  As soon as I walked into the room, I knew things had changed dramatically.  In taking one look at my Dad, I knew it wouldn’t be weeks, I knew it would be days, if that.  Dread was the first emotion to arise followed quickly by huge waves of grief.  Seeing the nurse do care and the intense pain that any movement caused Dad, a tiny sense of relief that his suffering might soon be over began to enter my body. 

I had brought my Olympic Torch to show my Dad.  In the elevator, some one had asked me if the box contained chocolates.  I said, “No, it has an Olympic Torch.”  I took it out of the box and once again witnessed its magic as people began to hold it and pass it around.  I showed it to Dad as soon as I arrived and there was a brief flicker of recognition in his eyes.  I placed it on the windowsill and we enjoyed watching nurses, doctors, and visitors as they picked it up and hold the torch.  As I carried it on Mom and Dad’s anniversary, it felt like a tribute to have the torch there. 

Dad’s main doctor, Dr. Amigo, paid a special visit so I could show him the torch.  He carried it out onto the unit and joked that his ego was getting bigger by the second.  He was originally from Argentina so we shared our love of Dulce de Leche and I showed him pictures of climbing Aconcagua on my laptop.  I appreciated Dr. Amigo taking time to be with us with such kindness and grace–not only was he looking after Dad, he was looking after us.  It seemed he had “right livelihood” being perfectly suited in skill and temperament to the work he does and I loved his name.  Amigo means friend in Spanish and he was indeed, a doctor friend.

As the day progressed, Dad could no longer respond or wake up.  He slipped deeper and deeper into unconsciousness.  In July, I carried a string of prayer flags to the summit of Mount Elbrus for both my Dad and Moh Hardin, my Buddhist teacher.  In celebration of this, I hung a string of prayer flags over Dad’s bed and took comfort in seeing their familiar colours and having them remind me of Buddhist teachings.  They also provided another point of conversation and it turned out that one of Dad’s nurses had worked in Tibet.  Small world.

The hospital gift shop had “puffed wheat squares.”  These chocolate confections are one of my favourite treats as well as Dad’s.  I bought some and brought them up to the room.  I wished that just one more time Dad and I could compete for the last bite.  It wasn’t uncommon for Mom to have to make one tray for my Dad and one for me.  I was comfortable talking to my Dad even though he couldn’t respond.  I offered him some puff wheat squares and told him that I would keep eating them and would miss sharing them with him.

We spent the day in prayer punctuated by stories.  Again, when visitors would come, we shared memories of Dad and used laughter to temper our grief.  It was harder to leave the hospital that night and I contemplated staying over.  We asked the nurses to call us if anything changed and we’d be back as quick as we could. 

The call came the next morning.  We all headed quickly to the hospital.  It was snowing heavily.  Mom, Marian and I arrived first.  Seeing Dad, we knew it wouldn’t be long.  When Mike and Shawn arrived, both Mike and I had had the same thought.  Dad loved to ski and this was a perfect day to go.  Each time I looked out the window, I imagined Dad standing at the top of his favourite run in Banff just waiting for enough perfect powder to fall to begin his run.

We all sat round him.  He was no longer in any pain and for the first time in days, we could touch him (previously the lightest touch was agony for him).  Again, we told stories and memories and laughter was once again mixed with the tears.  I had promised Rayne I would take a picture of something on the unit but had forgotten the camera in the car.  I didn’t want to leave but knew I didn’t want to miss getting the picture for Rayne so I let Dad know I was stepping out and quickly went to the car.  I stopped in the gift shop for more puffed wheat squares.

I got back to Dad’s room and took the picture Rayne wanted.  A sense came over me and I turned, put the camera down, and saw down beside my Dad.  I offered the puffed wheat squares round and most indulged–Dad loved them.  We surrounded Dad with love and care and he passed gently at 12:34.  Those that know me know that my watch beeps everyday at 12:34.  It is my favourite time of day…1, 2, 3, 4!  I just get a kick out of it and don’t want to miss it so I set an alarm.  It was just like my Dad to pick such a moment to go.  I know that each day when the alarm beeps, not only will I chuckle with my favourite time of day, I’ll think of my Dad and everything he means to me.

Once the first round of tears had fallen, we took out a small bottle of whiskey that Dad hadn’t gotten to drink and passed it around.  We told Dad that we must really love him to drink the rye straight up without mix.  Dr. Amigo came in and offered words of comfort that though Dad went quicker than anyone expected, he was now finally free of pain.  With his words, came a huge sense of relief for me that has carried me through the first few days since Dad’s death.  Near the end, he hurt so much that I could hardly stand it and I am so grateful that he suffering is over.  I knew I would miss him so much but I wanted him pain free even more.

We each took time to say our good-byes.  I took the prayer flags down knowing that they would come with me to Everest and hang in my tent as both a reminder of my Dad and a reminder of his strength that I can draw upon whenever needed.  We packed the rest of Dad’s belongings and I drove us home through the storm.  The rest of that day was a fog of funeral arrangements, logistics, and alternating relief and disbelief. 

We all dreaded telling Oma, my Dad’s mother for we know she’d loved him so deeply for all of his 67 years.  She’d had a dream earlier in the day that Dad had died and sobbed uncontrollably for the first while.  We then got out her brandy and toasted Dad once again.  With glasses in hand, the stories began again and Oma had us nearly peeing our pants with her antics.  I appreciated the laughter as it helps balance out the deep sadness.

Since most of you live away from Edmonton and won’t be able to see Dad’s Obituary, I’ve pasted it here.

Heinz Loeffler, aged 67 years, passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on December 4, 2009.  He is survived by his loving wife, Denise, his mother, Frida and two children, TA (Marian), and Mike (Shawn).  Heinz also leaves to mourn two grandchildren, Rayne and Xander and numerous other relatives and close friends.  He was predeceased by his father, Alois and Uncle Joe and Auntie Hilde.  A prayer service will be held on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. at the Chapel of Howard & McBride Westlawn, 16310 Stony Plain Road, Edmonton with a Funeral Mass on Thursday, December 10 at 11:00 a.m. at Good Shepherd Catholic Church, 18407-60 Ave, Edmonton.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Prostate Cancer Canada, (145 Front Street East, Suite 306 Toronto Ontario M5A 1E3 http://www.prostatecancer.ca) or the Grey Nuns Community Hospital, Palliative Care Unit 43.  Heinz’s family thanks you for your care and support during this difficult time.

Thank you for all of your kind words, thoughts, and prayers as they bring great comfort to my family and me.  Take good care,

TA