From Marlene Waters

Every time I return to Canada for work, I would stay with Alex and Jake and his growing collection of bikes, but in March of this year, I received a phone call from Alex telling me she and Jake were planning to head to my area of the world – Arizona. So while Jake did his form of relaxation (crazy, all day biking in Tucson), Alex and I enjoyed ours (a day at the spa).

From their last night here, when we were all together, I remember a couple of things. One was Jake not feeling it had been his best bike trip as he couldn’t get his heart rate up. For all of you bikers, I’m sure you understand, but I remember joking with Alex saying “wasn’t it a good thing if you can bike all day and your heart wasn’t racing?” Jake tried to explain the difference, but I will never understand :)

The 2^nd thing I remember was him playing with my 2 month old son. The first thing Jake did when he arrived for dinner was ask to see Benjamin. Instead of playing with him from a distance, he immediately held him and gushed about how cute that age was and how he was so excited to go through that stage again with their second child.

Jake loved how you could hold them and they would cuddle with you. I have known Jake since my first year of university, he was the guy that didn’t sit still when you talked to him, or would quickly jump on a tangent and have you laughing at how excited he got, but the Jake I saw holding my son was a Dad that understood how precious babies are, and who was already in love with his unborn child. I am glad I got to see that side of Jake, and my only regret is that I never got my camera out while they were here.

Marlene Waters