1-Year Anniversary - NIMBUS

Dear Dylan, I'm not sure what I was expecting but the one year anniversary was a beautiful day for me. The timing of being asked to present your bursary on the day of your death seemed like some kind of divine synchronicity. The school had been planning their big whole school assembly for months and it just seemed like it was meant to be. Having the presentation to look forward to seemed to give us a shape and structure to what might otherwise have felt like a lost and meandering day.

All of us, Eden, Justin, Jim and I spent the night at Joanne’s so we could go downtown together and be there by 10:30 to Nimbus School of Recording and Media. The owner of the school was in from Los Angeles and wanted to meet us and the school President had arranged for us to have a tour of the school. They had made up a lovely framed photo of you along with your story that will hang on the wall at the school.

The school is quite an amazing place and I so wish you had been able to go there – you would have absolutely loved the high tech environment they have created! After the tour, they took us out for lunch at a nice restaurant in Olympic Village and then we walked over to Science World to do the bursary presentation. They were having an assembly of the entire student body in the auditorium there - about 250 people all in various stages of their education at Nimbus. We all came up on the stage and I talked about you and your talent. I also told them that you never thought your music was good enough to put online and how sad that makes me that we have so few of your creations uploaded to your SoundCloud. I encouraged everyone to just put their stuff out there in its many variations as it’s all a work in progress and they’ll be glad someday to have the record of their journey. I also held up a Dylan Stone and told them I would be happy to let anyone who wanted one place one around the city.

We left from the presentation and went to Ambleside Park in West Vancouver to place a stone for you at the dog beach where we used to take Seymour to swim. The spot we chose has a fantastic view of the Lion’s Gate bridge and the city. This was also the same beach where we held our first remembrance ceremony for you the day after you passed away and we all got on a plane to Toronto for your funeral. It seemed to feel right to be there again. It was a beautiful afternoon and we found a great spot. Justin decorated the stone with wild flowers and with the sunlight, it made for a beautiful photo.

We got in the car shortly after and drove back home to Kelowna. It was a peaceful and beautiful day together and I’m very grateful to have been able to share it with your brother and sister. We are all still processing our grief in our own ways but for one day, we were together for you and each other.