One Tim Hortons At A Time

Tim Hortons is my favourite coffee joint. You see, I have a bit of a love affair with Timmy because Timmy saved my life four years ago. Well, it felt like he saved me, things were really bad with my husband, Ken’s, heart, and Tim Hortons got me through it. Let me explain:

A few years ago we were finally in a position to take a vacation. We decided to take our rig, a one ton truck with camper pulling a closed in trailer, oh yes, and canoe on top for a dream trip across BC to the west coast. We booked the ferry at Prince Rupert south to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, and would work our way east and then back north over the course of four weeks.

It is exhilarating taking off on your first day of vacation. We were flying high on happiness and feeling free.

But three hours down the road Ken’s heart went into V-Tac and his AICD defibrillator shocked him and got his heart going again. He was taken to emergency by ambulance, and was admitted. When Ken was discharged, his heart was not stable and he was not allowed to drive for six months. We were not prepared to give up on our vacation yet. We felt if we went home, we would not rest, and thought that if we could just relax somewhere by some water, things would settle down. So even with changed plans we decided to press on. Only thing is, I was even more exhausted and now I had to do “all” of the driving!

When I looked at the map, I seriously had a panic attack, and had to come up with a way to calm myself down and keep my anxiety hidden from Ken.

So, I forgot about BC, I even forgot about our final destination for that day. I looked at the map again with blinders and saw that the “next” town was only 23 kilometres away. I said to myself, “you can do this, that is only 23 kilometres, no sweat. And when you get there, go to Tim Horton’s, stretch your legs and get yourself a Tim Hortons coffee.” Then with coffee in hand, I would look at the map again. The next town which was only 34 kilometres away and I told myself, “No sweat, you can drive 34 kilometres and when you get there, you can go to Tim Hortons for a washroom break.” And off we went. The next town was Tim Hortons for lunch.

I drove all the way to Vancouver Island and back to Richmond BC and over into Alberta and all the way back home to northern BC. When I look back, it still amazes me how I did that long journey. When anyone asks me, I tell them I did it one Tim Hortons at a time.