Hi everyone,

This is Tim, Candace’s husband. Candace died last night at about 8:30 p.m. She was right where she wanted to be — comfortably tucked into her own bed, Nate and I by her side, wearing one of my favourite Eagles T-shirts, the season opener on the TV. We worked hard in her final days to make sure she felt no pain. She was surrounded by love, and I know her heart was full.

Candace spent a decade fighting cancer — lines upon lines of treatment, surgeries to rebuild and reconstruct, therapies to manage symptoms. Treat, recover, repeat. And woah, she squeezed every drop of joy out of the time each cycle provided, whether it was camping with friends in the mountains, taking a hot holiday in Mexico or Hawaii, making T-shirts on her Cricut, enjoying a good meal or hosting fundraisers for the cause.

A fierce believer in the idea that you are only as sick as you let yourself feel, she worked hard to stay healthy. She cherished the relationships she built through the Alberta Cancer Exercise study and Wellspring Edmonton. I know she suffered more than she ever let on to make sure she was there for Nate and me. She hated being called brave, because bravery implied, she had a choice. But she was. And tough. Oh, was she tough.

Family was so important to her. Friends, equally so. She was so proud of her boy, whether it was watching him play hockey, perform with his rock band or act with his school improv team. Even as her health failed, she took joy in seeing Nate graduate Grade 10 and pass his driving test. In her final days, she saw him head off to Grade 11 (driving her car — yikes).

I’d like to thank everyone who reached out over the last few months with kind words, visits, flowers or food. We were powered by your positive vibes. I’d also like to thank all of the staff at the palliative home-care program — nurses, doctors, LPNs, personal care aides, occupational therapists, pharmacists and paramedics. Your skills, commitment and compassion allowed Candace to remain comfortable and in her home to the very end. And I want to extend my gratitude to my co-workers at The Canadian Press, who all had to work harder these past weeks to let me take up the role of caregiver. I’m truly in your debt.

I’ll finalize funeral arrangements in the coming days. Please stay tuned. And if you want to pay tribute to Candace this weekend, get outside and go for a walk among the trees. She loved the outdoors so much.

We have a message board on the counter in our kitchen — one of those with the plastic letters like a wall menu in an old diner. Before she took ill, Candace posted the slogan, “We can do hard things.” I looked at that message every day for the last three months and lived by those words. Nate and I will make that our mantra as we press on — our small family now smaller.

It’s hard right now. Candace is gone and we miss her. She wasn’t with us long enough, and she shouldn’t have had to fight so hard for the time she had. But if there’s one thing she has taught us all, it’s that we can do hard things.