Submitted to A picture's worth project on December 28, 2003.
Photo was taken with Minolta X-700 SLR sometimes in May 1998.

It all began one day on March 1998, when my friend called me on ICQ and suggested for the million time to come and visit her and her family in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I was living in Israel at the time. I said "No" before, but this time my reaction was different. I was in the middle of a very harsh crisis in my life. I was struggling to accept many horrible facts that reality threw upon me, and felt so angry... so helpless... and so very sad.

So in those days I was ready for one thing: escape from the place, the people, the situations that I've known to be so painful, and find a place which maybe - just maybe - will bring some peace of mind to my tormented soul. And yes... There was another thing: Joe - My good ICQ friend from the net, whom I was talking to for ten months at that time, and stood by me at my difficult hours of despair - was living in Calgary too. He was the only one who could make me laugh then, and I was very glad of the opportunity to finally meet him in person.

On May 13, 1998, 3 am in the morning, I was on my flight to Toronto. From there, after 3 long hours of waiting - I had to take another flight to Calgary. Joe was the one who came to meet me at the airport. I was nervous. Although we knew many things about each other, we were both afraid of the meeting. We knew how we look, because we exchanged pics before. But we still had to pass this first look, after we could rest and enjoy the inner side of the person we were about to meet. After a long, long, long way, I was finally at Calgary's airport, heading to the exit. Then, I saw him. He held a flower - a single one - in his hand. I looked at him, and recognized him right away. I think we smiled at each other. Then he hugged me - a soft gentle hug. I needed that. I was tired, alone for a long time in the air, and in a foreign country. I felt then - as strange as it may sound - that somehow, I came home.

Joe sent me a picture of Lake Louise by E-mail when he first heard (over the net) I was coming over for a visit. When I saw the pic I thought to myself that this beautiful place is a reason by itself to visit Canada. It looked so peaceful, so harmonious, so marvelous. I fell in love with Lake Louise even before I saw it in real. So, of course, Lake Louise was one of the first places Joe took me to see!

When we parked the van and started walking towards the lake, I closed my eyes, hanging on to Joe's arm and asked him to lead me there, and tell me when I can see the whole lake in front of me. Few minutes later, we stopped walking, and when I opened my eyes, that was the sight I've seen... the photo before you. That was Lake Louise.

I looked at the scenery, slowly absorbed in (by eyes and soul) the magnificent beauty that was stretched in front of me to the horizon ... and began to cry. I can't explain the emotions fluency I've experienced at that moment. I only know that one thought was there in my mind when I saw the lake: "This is the most beautiful place on the face of the earth!" I couldn't take my eyes of the lake. I gave Joe a big hug and thanked him for taking me there. It was the most wonderful place on earth for me, also because he was there too.

Joe and I got married 18 months later... but that's a whole different story :-)).