As much as I love October it's a difficult month to get through.
Today would have been my mother's birthday and it is also the anniversary of my father's death. The anniversary of my mother's death is October 11th. My sister's first baby was stillborn in October and my 26-year-old brother-in-law died on October the 24th. Both my sister and I hold our breaths for the entire month and are afraid to answer our phones.
= new reply since forum marked as read
OTOH, it's such a beautiful month and there's always Halloween to look forward to. It's finally getting cool here. Are you cooling off there yet?
Yes, it's finally cooling down a bit, from mid-to high-90s to mid- to high-80s.
Still waaaaaaay too hot for me. And near 100% humidity daily.
I miss the cool / cold, dry Canadian air that fall brings up north. It just seems wrong to have cool /cold super humid weather. 
2008 was an awful Oct. In my family, too, except everyone who passed was nearly 90 to my fav uncle who was 97. Still sad, but not unnaturally young. 3 wakes & funerals in 4 weeks, all on Fridays with Saturday burials. All at the same funeral home, in the same room.
Out of town family kept joking "we have to stop meeting like this." 
I'm usually on if you want to chat.
You know, we had 90s, too, up until last week, which is odd for us. I remember getting a lot of rain in October while I was growing up in your neck of the woods. It must be a shock living there after Canada, both environmentally and culturally.
My dad had taken a fall, had a brain bleed, & was placed in a hospice home. That same day, my mom's older sister passed.
A week earlier, we buried my dad's older brother.
Such a weird time.
The worst of it all was every couple of days, the hospice team would meet to see if they were going to allow my actively dying dad to stay or if they would send him home to pass. Yikes! But they kept him &, sad as it was, it was a wonderful place for him to make his transition. He was a couple of months from his 89th bday & had been saying for months that he was tired & ready to go.
So it was all good. Part of life.
I've never had the pleasure of living in Canada. If I had, I'd still be there for sure! Lol i'm from the Chicago burbs. Still a huge culture shock & not in a good way.
But I got to see my 4 day old grand daughter yesterday. That's why I'm here. 
That must've been a tough choice to retire. I'd miss the newbies, too.
It's been so long since I've held a noodly newborn, I was afraid to hold her.
But I did. And I exhaled, lifted my N95 & sucked in a huge whiff of newborn.
In my family, pretty much everyone is born or dies between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. My birthday is Wednesday. My father’s is Friday, and it’s also the anniversary of his death. Can’t count how many relatives died on the same autumn day as others were born. It’s freaky.