I anticipated the return of the Calgary Stampede and it did not disappoint.  Stampede was an annual event for the kids and I.  Each year, on Kid’s Day, we would head down to play the midway games, eat mini donuts, shop in the BMO Centre and try the new icky dish and then go home. As the kids grew, I would go home alone and they would stay to meet up with friends and do the rides.  And then, as they reached adulthood, Nashville North was added to their “must do” list. Yes, Stampede in our house is the biggest event of the year.  A holiday like no other and because of this it is also my biggest trigger.

Stampede was Zane’s gig. He anticipated it like a kid at Christmas and cried when the tents came down. He spent every free minute (and every saved penny) on the grounds. So keeping up this tradition without him is no easy task.  The first year we went, every game, every smell screamed at me, “He is not here”.  I ended up going home and crawling under the covers. When Stampede was cancelled the following year I suggested it was ok.  “If Zane couldn’t be here, Stampede shouldn’t either”. 

This year, I looked forward to going, to giving Stampede another try. Jon and I took Payton and her fiancée.  We brought ‘the dude’, Zane’s essence, too. This year felt different.  Partly because we left the fear (and masks) of the past year behind, but it was more than that. The energy of the people, the sunshine, the live music, the smell of corn dogs greeted us at the gates. We played our favorite games and won prizes. There was chatter about Zane being our lucky charm.  You could feel him. And then my biggest, unexplainable sign confirmed this.

The kids were in line to get Alligator Tail bites. Yea, we tried every weird food there and enjoyed them all! Jon and I went to get a table on the roof top. As we were standing at our table, my back toward the grounds, I looked into the construction going on behind the fence.  There was nothing there.  No people, no stored items, just dug up dirt and cement. As Jon and I chatted, from the side I could see something floating up from the construction site. I looked over to see one perfect bubble floating up.  I gasped. Bubbles are Zane’s thing….loved blowing them and always kept a bubble wand in his car! I grabbed Jon’s hand and said, “Look, look over there!” I went over to look to see where it could be coming from.  There were no other bubbles, no persons near, no bubbles from another site, nothing. I started to cry. “Oh, my God, Zane is here.  He is letting us know”. And the bubble floated up towards us and then up higher into the blue sky. Jon and I were silent. Both of us were smiling. I said to him, “my heart, my heart….it is filled with my boy.”

When you receive a sign such as this, you do not distrust it.  You do not check into the realistic possibilities of how it could have happened.  You do not question it. If you do, the magic is lost.  What you do is accept it as a sign from your loved one. You receive it with a glad heart as a confirmation that they are with us.  And you celebrate it. Which is what we did and this magic made my day. It filled my heart with the love of my son and the joy that Stampede brings our family.  Even now.