06 Nov Mimi and Me
Exactly 10 days ago, on October 26th, marked the 3 year anniversary of my mom’s passing. Recently I’ve been doing a lot of grief posts so I’ve been pretty in touch with my feelings. I got super emotional on her 50th birthday, and shared some of my story with you in my video about how breast cancer affected my family. So it’s safe to say, I was all cried-out on the 26th.
This being said, I still wanted to do something special on that day. When people think of grief milestones, they usually think that you have to go to the cemetery and spend time with your family, when that’s not the case at all. There isn’t a ‘right’ way to remember someone and you shouldn’t feel bad even if you don’t want to do anything special at all. This year, I decided to spend a nice day downtown with my friend Emily. Now, the special/crazy/complicated story of our friendship is for another blog post, but she’s one of those friends that I can just talk to and call up on a whim to hang out (we just had an impromptu vegan ramen dinner date tonight).
Before I moved downtown, my mom always said that she would come visit me at my apartment and we could walk around the city, go to cute stores, and coffee shops, so that’s basically what I did to remember her on the 26th. Emily and I first went to Kitten and the Bear; it was my first time and I am now in love with it. There are only two tables there and we arrived pretty early, so we got a cute little table to ourselves. We enjoyed some delicious tea, steamy fresh scones, and delicious locally made jams.
After that, we walked to Common Sort and I ended up finding the perfect fall coat, a skirt for $8 (I couldn’t say no), and a jean jacket that I’m going to DIY. Then, we just walked around on Queen West, had some dinner, and then I went home.
I’m so glad that I got Emily to take these shots of me in my Mimi Hammer shirt, that we can all take the time to appreciate. I feel like the brand is so cute, and if they had a store in Toronto, my mom and I would have loved to go shop there together. They’re all about body positivity and female empowerment; everything that I love. Their products are made in Montreal, so they have some super cute and funny french phrases on their shirts, and also it’s made in Canada, which is awesome!
Looking back on my day, I’m very happy with how I spent it. It didn’t have to be a super sad and emotional day; it was just a nice afternoon with a friend.