The crows pulled me out of bed early Saturday morning. One particularly annoying one appeared to follow me to Tim Horton’s as I headed out to forage for a desperately needed cup of coffee. He parked himself on the grass beside the drive through and cawed incessantly at Niko who just stared back – likely thinking “Leave me alone man, if I bark I won’t get a donut”.

How appropriate to have the crows calling to me bright and early –  recovering from the intense emotional outpouring we experienced Friday night felt a lot like the day after Jordan’s funeral. So many people approached Greg and I at the event – thanking us for sharing Jordan’s story, sharing their own personal struggles, telling us we had forever changed their view of mental illness. Complete strangers – who wrapped their arms around us for a hug and shared such deeply personal stories.

The One Voice event was remarkable, amazing, more than we had hoped for and I am struggling to find the right words to  describe it.

The showing of the documentary “Somewhere in Mind” left us as feeling pretty vulnerable. We were still so raw and the loss was still so new when we filmed it –  it’s frankly pretty hard to watch. Michael Landsberg had the daunting task of taking the stage right after the video played and he did an amazing job of segueing from tragedy to hope and he set the tone for the remainder of the evening. “Share your story. You will change someone’s life.”

So many people approached us later to describe the profound conversations they experienced over dinner – colleagues and strangers sharing their experiences with mental health, talking about the need to remove the stigma, to increase the research into new approaches to treatment.

To be given the opportunity to hear Michael tell his story and share the impact he has had on others. To be able to listen to Kelly Hrudy’s daughter Kaitlin share her struggles with OCD and anxiety and watching the pride and love on her Dad’s face as she did so. To be given the gift of listening to Clara Hughes in person and to have her share a deeply personal story she had never shared publicly before because she was inspired by our courage.

The best gift of all though was connecting with Jordan’s friends – who took the time to tell me what they remembered most about Jordan, what they admired best, and to tell me that they missed him and would not forget him. There are no sweeter words to a grieving mother’s ears.

Something magical happened Friday night – it feels like we are at the tipping point of a transformational change. Our goal has always been to have Jordan’s life and Jordan’s death inspire others to make a difference in how mental illness is viewed and treated. Jordan’s struggle and our aching loss now have some meaning. And we recognize that the focus needs to shift from inspiration to hope. Two years from now, at the next One Voice event, we won’t be focused on Jordan’s story – instead another young, talented, handsome young man will tell the story of his mental illness and how being part of the Neural Health project is helping him live successfully with his disease.

 “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” (Margaret Mead)