Celebration of Life

On October 17, 2021, I had open heart surgery; 3 years ago today. Having no symptoms at all, Drs Robert Cole Garrett and Sanjeev Trehan saved my life. My father was 42 when he died, experiencing a massive heart attack on Easter Sunday. I was just 21 years old. An event like this changes you forever; I’m not the same person I was before my surgery. Afterwords, you pray a lot more, count your blessings twice over and live grateful every single day. I eat right when I’m not working, exercise and get lots of sleep. You forgive everyone, including yourself. You make priority time for the people you love. You learn lessons, big and small, and apply them to your life and never ever look back. You live your life with intention. I often learn by example and most recently, Maia Williams and Erik Zavala Kugler showed us all how to live with purpose. I try now to do that every day. Despite the fact I was advised against it, coming back to San Miguel de Allende was the best decision I ever made. Forget that it’s been named the best small city in the world more times than I can remember, San Miguel is San Miguel because of its people and by this community I have been blessed in so many ways. I have a new sense of wonder; it’s almost as if I’ve been reborn. With this new reality, I’m now living my best life and I’m so happy to be here. It took a long time to heal; much longer than I imagined, but I’m 100% now and with a huge leap of faith, I started my culinary journey of Mexico this year, having completed Oaxaca and Guadalajara and will now tackle Merida in November. Thank you and as I count my blessings this year, all 365 days of them, I am grateful; so very grateful.