October 31, 2022 All Hallows Eve

October 31… Halloween used to be one of my favourite days of the year. Many of my best memories of fatherhood come from taking my kid trick or treating. I can still see her in her first costume dressed up as Tigger from Winnie The Pooh. 

But like all good things in life, this too has come to an end. 

But I still have my memories. I can picture my dad coming from Calgary all proud and excited to see his granddaughter and share her joy of going door to door yelling “trick or treat!”

My dad was so happy to be able to come on those days. It was special having grampa there for Halloween, the pure joy of childhood was something he cherished, something to be held onto in a warm embrace. His embrace is something I can still feel in my soul. 

I miss those days of pure innocence and joy.

As the years went by I can look back at my pictures and see all the different costumes we created. It’s like a time capsule of creative change. My daughter has been a witch, a devil, a cat, a peacock, a construction worker a princess, a mermaid, and of course Winnie The Pooh. I wish I could freeze those moments and keep them with me. I hold them, dear, inside my heart.

I still laugh at the memories of her and her friends racing door to door, running for each house to get the candy. We would walk with the other parents and share the joy of the evening. It was a connection with our friends and with the people who we saw along the way.

This too inevitably came to an end. 

Now I cherish the memories I have of those magical times. Times when nothing else mattered but how many places we could visit. Haunted houses and happy times, Halloween was a time to be a kid again. 

Now my teenage daughter has work and other things in life. Her friends have gone away and trick or treating is for the little ones. 

We also made a tradition of carving pumpkins. This was the first year the pumpkins we grew languished in the garden, neglected and untouched. 

I felt sad that we never took the time to sit together and create a pumpkin masterpiece. But time was not on our side, my kid has a job, and life got in the way. The next thing I knew it was October 31 and my daughter was working.

This was the first year we sat at home and had candy to hand out. We always were off with my daughter and the street we live on has very few kids to come to the door. A new generation of costumes has grown up on our road now and we had two groups come to the door. Not nearly enough for the large box of Kit Kats my wife bought. Now we are stuck with over 70 little chocolate bars. Sigh – resistance is futile…

The evening ended quietly, a feeling of longing sat in my gut as I went to get my daughter from her job at Superstore. 

Suddenly a scarecrow showed up at the door of the car. 

It was Marijke, my kid all dressed up. I smiled at the costume and gave her a big hug. She grinned as she put her brand new box of chocolate bars in the back seat, her reward for dressing up.

Halloween wasn’t quite dead yet.