343 members of the FDNY from 75 separate fire companies made the ultimate sacrifice on 9/11. More than 100 have died since then from illnesses directly related to their work at Ground Zero. The number grows every year.

We were friends, in real time and space, therefore I was not alerted with pings from any of my technological criers that he was gone. Among his many talents, Ralph is a world renowned expert on the writings of Dylan Thomas. In between moves like Jagger, he was reciting these words from ‘Fern Hill’…

Our big city became a neighbourhood as 28 of us proudly marched, danced and played with the crowds while handing out YOU ARE LOVED notes by the thousands. We boldly carried signs that read HAVE THE BALLS TO SHOW YOUR LOVE and COME OUT AND PLAY, flaunting our love light amongst 500,000 friends.

The great thing about New York is the volume of people with their eyes wide open. So much goes down in this city. The food, architecture, art and culture. So when we brought our Big Love Balls to The Big Apple, we were embraced by open minds and open hearts.

Rachael Watt had just accepted a job as Hotel Manager of Acre Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico. The good life became routine in the Baja. Until Fate left a box of little beating hearts on the property’s edge, for Rachael. Deliveries of sick and abandoned street dogs without futures, landed in her lap daily.

A young man named Michael Page was sucker punched leaving him comatose on the floor of a Starbucks in Vancouver. Onlookers stood helplessly watching. Two days later and with zero choice, his parents Steffany and Mike made the call to let him go.