Travelling the World

On Oct. 24, 2008...
Ella started to travel the world...

A hop on on a plane...
A stop in Winnipeg...
A much anticipated visit...
To meet her granpapa Kumar...
And her grandmamaman Kamla...
Her great-cousins and their families...

It was meant to be a month long trip...
Taking us...
From Winnipeg to Montréal...
To meet my side of the family...
And for me to enjoy my time off with my baby girl...

I still remember how Ella was quiet...
And happy, really...

While I stuggled to get answers...
For the problems I already knew we were facing....

Ella had gone in the day before...
For a second lung xray...
And by some stroke of luck...
Or rather what I call now...
Writing in the sky...
Ella was seen by the radiology technician....
Who had performed the first xray 10 days earlier..

And he remembered...
Ella...
My Ella...

Long story short...
There was indeed progress of the wrong kind...
In her little lungs...

And so I desperatly tried to get...
Radiology and paediatry to talk...
Even minutes before we boarded our plane...

Our flight took off...
With Ella in my arms...
Peaceful...

She fed...
And she slept...
In my arms...
And in her baby seat...

She played with my hair...
And smiled to flight attendants...
Oblivious to my worries...

Which came crashing in...
Minutes after we landed...

"Ms. Dupont, this is Dr. H...
We need you to come back to Vancouver...
To run further tests"...

As my heart sank...
I remember grabbing a pen and paper...
And noting on it...
A list of details...
I knew I needed to remember...
As my brain shut down...

My baby was sick...

I already knew it...
I could not prove it...
But my gut had yelled it...
From the day she was born...

I also clearly recall...
Asking Dr. H...
Who was requesting our immediate return...
If a couple of days would make a difference...

I had to take my girl...
To Montréal to meet my family...
Her family...

I did not know what the answer would be...
And I honestly can't say I would have listened...
Had the doc said don't go to Montréal...

It's as though I knew...
That it would be...
Ella's one and only...
Trip back East...

So we went to Montréal...
And when we arrived at my parents' place...
I was faced with telling Ella's other grandma...
Grand-maman Gigi...
My own maman...
And grand-papa Jacques...
That Ella was sick...
And that we would not stay...
As we had planned to...

Instead, we made the best...
Of the little time we had...

Ella met her cousins...
Samia and Renaud...
And she met my friend Anick...

She played with grand-maman Gigi...
She was photographed by grand-papa Jacques...
And actually was the superstar...
On a photo shoot...
Organized by her uncle Martin...

Ella also was pampered...
By aunty Marie-Claude...
To whom I later found out...
She gave a big scare...
Because of her laboured breathing...

The only ingredients missing...
Were my brother and his wife...
Who at the of our visit...
Were away on a trip...

It would have been a month...
Of time with family...
With friends...
With at least a visit to Québec City...
And another one to Ottawa...

It would have been enough time...
For Ella to meet her uncle Jacques-André...
And auntie Janic...

And then after that month...
Visits to Yellowknife...
And Trinidad...
Would have been complemented...
Possibly by a trip overseas...

At least that was the plan...

Fast forward 2 years...
And tomorrow, October 27th, 2010...
Will be 19 months...
Since I lost Ella...

And yet...
Ella has travelled the world...

Ella still travels the world...

Ella lives in the heart of friends in Ireland...
And Ella brigthens the days of moms in the UK...

Ella inspires families in the U.S....
And Ella shines in Germany...
As well as in many, many other locations...
Around the globe...

She has brought together...
Families from several countries...
Who just like ours...
Have a common diagnosis for this PVNH rare disease...

And so through her passing...
And in the mission she left me...

Ella not only travels the world...

But she lives in
British Columbia....
Québec...
Manitoba...
Ontario...
PEI...
Alberta...
Northwest Territories...
Trinidad...
USA...
Australia...
New Zealand...
Ireland...
Germany...
U.K....
France...
Belgium...
Austria...
South Africa...
Poland...

And Ella continues...
To travel the world....

ELLA - Everyone Loves Little Angels