Devin’s life was soaring by the time he reached twenty-one. Devin had such an amazing future ahead of him and I often wondered how beautiful and amazing that would be.

Devin was settled right in with his own company by this age and had his semi vac working non-stop. Everyone always loved Devin as he was a very easy person to work with. The company he pulled for never had a negative word and the dispatch and field supervisors never had any issues with him. He went and did the work and got it done properly every time.

His work often took him northwest of Lloydminster and on occasion I had to travel up to Bonnyville for work. I always did the same thing each time if I knew Devin was out in that area. I would stop and get drinks, snacks, and food on occasion before I left Bonnyville making my way home as Devin was usually travelling around the same highway headed to dump his last load of the day at the disposal. I would call him, and he would be waiting at the turn off to the disposal. He would jump in my vehicle for a few minutes and visit, eat and have his drink. We would have a nice little visit then he would have to be on his way as he wanted to get unloaded and get home for the night. Those were some of the most precious moments I had. I loved those little visits. I don’t think he ever realized how him taking that little bit of time for his mom meant so much for me.

On a normal workday, I called Devin every morning on my way to town as I knew he would already be out working. I only called just to say good morning and for him to have a wonderful day. Then every single night as soon as I got out of work, I was on the phone again calling him to see how his day went. I knew that he was always usually sitting waiting to unload at the disposal at that time and so he would have a few minutes to talk. I never cared what we talked about, it was always just so nice to hear about his day and what his plans were for the evening. I missed him dearly when he moved out on his own and this over the years just became our habit of staying in touch. He knew how much I missed having him around and we just loved our chats.

At this time of his life, Devin also started coming with us each summer down to South Dakota to visit friends. We tried so hard to get him to go every year but finally when he was around twenty, he came his first year. The trip is about a fifteen-to-sixteen-hour ride down there. We usually go halfway one day and finish the trip the next. As I said, it took us a number of years to finally convince him to come with us down there, then his first trip was interesting to say the least. Each year, we usually travelled to Plentywood and would stop there and get rooms. Well, the first year Devin decided to come with us, we got to Plentywood, and they had an oil boom going on so there were no rooms and they warned us there would probably be no rooms for a couple hours in any direction. There was a whole group of us travelling together and so we continued on our journey. We had no idea where we were going to stop but we knew we were outrunning a couple storms that were headed for us. We got about an hour and a half down the road and we had to stop for fuel. A police vehicle pulled into the fuel station, and he was asking if we were stopping for the night. We said we couldn’t find rooms and were trying to outrun the storm since we were all on motorbikes. The officer assured us that if we were headed south, we should just miss the storm, so we all headed out. We did not get more than ten minutes down the road and the two storms collided. There we all were on bikes, most of the young guys (mainly Devin and his buddies) were not at all dressed for the weather. The wind started blowing so bad we were getting hammered with dirt out of the fields; it started pouring rain and you couldn’t see two feet in front of you and so we managed to get pulled off the road onto a side road that would be safer. There were nine of us that crawled in a little trailer that pulled behind the bike to get out of the storm.

My thought was that after it took us so much to convince Devin to come in the first place, there was no way we would ever get him to come south with us again. Devin really was never one to want to try anything new for the first time but in that rare instance, if you convinced him and he had fun, he would do it again after but if not, you would never get him to try it again. As we all are plugged in that little motorbike trailer, I was positive that I would never convince him again to go.

Once the storm let up, we all hopped on the bikes and off we went again. We still were unable to find a place to stay so the group decision was to keep riding. By this time, it was very late in the night, but we ventured on. The next fuel stop we had, we all fuelled up and they warned us that there was some road construction just ahead. We were not happy but there were no rooms, so we all got fuelled up and were on our way again. It was wet because of the constant rain; it is hard to see because it is so late at night, but we were all determined to travel on. As we come up to a sign, we read it and it says pavement ends. Now literally, the pavement ended right where the sign was and because it was so dark and wet, none of us were able to read the sign until we were right there. My husband and I were leading the pack with Devin right behind us then everyone else. I remember reading the sign and the next thing I knew we were all over the place, not only did the road end but we were on clay and that is not a great feeling when riding a motorbike. We had the little trailer behind us and so it took us a bit to get stopped. When we finally got stopped, it was game over for me, I hopped off and started heading for where Devin was. He had ended up in the clay as well, he had kept his bike shiny side up, but he was able to get stopped a little quicker than us. We all got turned around, got back to the pavement, had a little breather and a storytelling session, and then decided to take a different way as we had no idea how long the construction went for but with how wet it was, we knew that was our only option.

We headed down the road and when we got to our next fuel stop, which by this time was the wee hours of the morning, we all decided that there was no point getting a hotel; but that we all needed to stop and have some breakfast before we ventured on. After breakfast and everyone filled their bellies and had lots of laughs, everyone decided to take five. I remember walking out of the restaurant and there was Devin and his friends….. it was bike, body, bike, body, bike, body. I just laughed and headed to lay down for a bit in our little bike trailer. Everyone had a cat nap on the ground beside their bike and then we got up and finished the journey to South Dakota.

After that sort of trip, I was positive now that there was NO WAY Devin would ever come again. It was bad enough that I was even too scared to ask because I wanted him to come so bad again but after that trip down, I wasn’t ready to hear his answer.

The week went fabulously and there were more exciting things that happened on the trip home but when we got home, I asked Devin if there was ever a chance, we would get him to come again. He was hooked, he couldn’t wait for the next year and was literally counting the days. I was so excited that he was hooked and wanted to come again. I felt so blessed that my son, at such a young age, was excited to take a week of his holidays each year with us. Devin came every year after that and loved it as much as the first year he came. He often laughed that it was definitely nicer not to travel down with so many issues, but it became another Seguin adventure that he absolutely loved.

He ended up also in this stage of his life proposing to his long-time girlfriend, Danielle, and she said yes. He was so happy and excited to marry the love of his life and they started planning the wedding.

His friends decided to take him to Las Vegas for his bachelor party. His fiancée made it very clear that he had better come back in one piece. He had such a good time and he had so many stories to tell us when he got back. The best was when his buddies had taken him to a restaurant that intentionally is super rude to the customers. Well, they went there for breakfast and Devin had a bit of a hang over from the night before, so he wanted a large glass of water. The waiter was playing his role and being rude and pretending to spit in the drink and those sorts of things. Devin’s best friend said that he took one look at Devin’s face and knew that the waiter was pushing his luck, so his buddy actually went and bought him a water. Devin was a very chill person but if you pushed him to much, you had better watch out. He never took crap from anyone. They laughed about that place for some time, but it was clear that was not the morning to be messing with Devin. They did run into an issue and Devin hurt himself while he was there, so he came back on crutches and a plastic boot on his foot. No one wanted to be the one to take him home to his fiancée because they all figured that would not end well.

With everything that happened, it just made for some good laughs at the wedding and some good pictures so that everyone would remember the bachelor party since in most of the pictures, the boot was very visible. Seeing Devin’s face as his fiancée walked down the aisle was absolutely priceless. He looked so happy, as did she. It was hard to believe that my baby was now a man and had his own family.

After the wedding, the two of them settled back into their life now being husband and wife. We all knew they wanted to have a family and that became the joke for many months constantly asking the two of them yet if she was pregnant. Even at Christmas, they got a present that had a little girl’s outfit and a little boy’s outfit in it. After a number of months without her being pregnant, I did not bug them as much because in the event that she was not able to get pregnant, I wanted them to feel comfortable talking to us and not thinking they would be letting us down.

Less than a year after their marriage, they decided to sell the second house that he had, and they bought a third house. This house had five bedrooms and we bugged them that there were lots of rooms they were going to have to fill.

Just before they got possession of that house was when that weekend came that Devin was not feeling well. He came home from work and decided to just chill as he didn’t feel right. He thought he just had the flu and planned to just chill for the weekend and take it easy. When he still was feeling pretty rough on Sunday, he decided to go up to the hospital and see a doctor. For Devin to feel he had to do that, there was more going on for him than a flu bug, but we would have never guessed the magnitude of the situation. He messaged us from the hospital and was going to leave because the wait was so long at the local hospital. We convinced him to head to the hospital in a smaller town about half an hour out of Lloydminster and get checked out. We knew if he actually was willing to go to the hospital in the first place, there must be more going on.

He and his wife headed for the hospital and the last text he sent me that night, he was worried about my health and told me I needed to get to bed. His exact words were “If I am dying, I will call you”. Wow, how that text plays over and over in my mind to this day.

That night they found some issues and sent him for a cat scan the next day and the results of that was that he had a tumor in his abdomen and so the craziness started.

During this time, he also got possession of his house and so it was really hard for Devin to not be able to do anything because of the pain he was in. He had to sit there and watch everyone who loved him pack and move his house for him and his wife. I remember the sadness on his face that he was unable to do this himself.

As he continued on fighting this disease and we were sitting in the hospital the one day, him and his wife had something to tell us. I panicked at first because at that time they were telling us it was cancer, then it wasn’t, then it was, it just felt like a total roller coaster.

They looked at us and informed us that his wife was pregnant, she was in her first trimester. I remember totally breaking down in tears, so many emotions for all of us. As excited as I was, I sat there and stared at my baby fighting for his life. It was such an amazing day and such a sad day at the same time.

Five short weeks after being diagnosed with a tumor in his abdomen, my baby took his last breath.

About six and a half months after my son passing, his wife gave birth to a beautiful little girl that carries her daddy’s first name as her middle name. So many people say, it is sad that he never got any time with her. My response is always the same, he got six and a half months with her before we ever got to see her. I know that he is with his baby every day of her life and she is a beautiful little lady that looks just like him.

I still know that though Devin is not here with us in physical form, that my son walks with me every single moment of every single day and I do everything I can to honor him and I am so proud to be able to say I am Devin Seguin’s mom!!!!