good morning everybody eamon and bec community people who i love and adore my name is lee
i am one of Eamon and Bec's close friends who i've met a lot of you before when i traveled in morocco
when we went to tobermory um we've shared some
good laughs and some good times so if you haven't met me before it's nice to meet you we can do
this do it as many times as it takes babe i know something about sitting down to do it i love you
this is for lee hello everybody today eamon and i are here to share that our good friend lee
after a long and very brave battle with mental illness took her own life four weeks ago
i'm sure many of you are familiar with lee from the van life youtube community she joyfully
shared her world adventures with you she popped up in our content especially over the last year
time and time again and every time she graced the screen it was pure magic because lee is pure magic
she was just such a magnetic person that whether you've met her in real life or not you she had
this pull and this ability to disarm anyone no matter how tough or how thick their armor was
she was able to totally get them to open up and talk and communicate and she was best friends with
everyone she met everyone she met she left a long long lasting
impression and a lot of people around the world the entire world
is is grieving these laws lee was also so brave in speaking up about her own
challenges and experiences with mental illness in the hope that she can make others feel less alone
she really really hated the idea that someone was looking at her single social media post or
a video where she seemed happy and carefree and thinking that she had it all figured out
and she did all of that and spoke out so bravely because she always put others first and knowing
her on a personal and deep level was the greatest gift of our lives we got to spend so much amazing
quality time with lee and and she was truly my best friend if the sun's gonna come back out
the original canisters
amen just squat again for me no problem okay
like we were we had this unbelievable relationship where you know
when we were together it was like the internet called it a throttle
mostly because i don't think there are words to describe that kind of unconditional love
and friendship and it was so rare and beautiful for us but it was every person in leigh's life
like she would say to me people tell me all the time that we have this really rare connection and
i don't find it that rare like i connected with everyone like this she was just magic
so today this video our help with this video is to share all of the joy and beauty that is lee
but to also carry on and this be our first step in carrying on the advocacy she had for mental health
awareness and speaking out to help end the stigma around it so what i've learned with depression
anxiety is that depression is being stuck in the past and anxiety is being stuck in the future
and ultimately when you're feeling this way you're not able to truly be present in the moment
mental illness is just as real as physical illness and can strike anyone no matter how unlikely that
person may seem and that was a big part of lee's story was opening up and sharing that with all of
you because life is so much bigger than a single social media post or what you think you know of
someone from their presence online but today we really do want to focus on celebrating lee
and that begins at the start of our story with her when we met her in mexico in 2018
we rolled into a fairly busy public parking lot and saw another van from canada and immediately
were drawn to them and as we pulled around the corner we saw the van and a girl with her yoga mat
in the next parking spot doing yoga in the middle of this mexican fearlessly fearlessly confidently
just sort of saying like wow well i need to stretch somewhere and i remember hitting it
off with her immediately as though we've been lifelong friends the places are dim in comparison
to the people that you meet from there like your memory of somewhere so much more fun if you've
had a great experience like we keep polaroid pictures of everybody that we've spent time with
that has meant something to us and so at the end of our trip like we'll have our polaroids and
as much as i said and i didn't mean it that way that if somebody took our van i would be obviously
devastated with the whole thing being gone but the one thing that's irreplaceable are those polaroid
pictures like everything you build you can remake so if we don't make it on the polaroid walls
sometimes i think i should watch them but something keeps telling me no no not yet
not yet not yet not yet not yet all right yeah not yet yeah not yet yet yes not yet not yet
right
over the years lee became an integral part of our lives weaseling her way
into all of our family's business and even our business she was working for chaiwala
and had the most amazing relationship with bob like we we have a small company so it'd be her
and bob at the office just shooting the [ __ ] she'd come to family like dinners at like
my parents house your parents house she was just our person and if we needed advice on our personal
relationship she was like our therapist if we needed business advice even if you didn't need
advice like even at family's dinner she didn't really talk about fluff she would crack right
into you know my brother's relationship and why they're this way and it was just oh man she was
she's so special she just said what she wanted and even though we often talk to
her and i about 2020 being a really difficult and dark year for her and for so many people
we both felt really really grateful for the time it gave us to be back in canada together
to have those small moments in between like the big travels and stuff for our quarantine like as
as crazy as it sounds we were so looking forward to her coming here we had the best quarantine and
doing another quarantine together like who loves 14 days of quarantine like that she made every day
special remember that that party she threw on our instagram live is that her idea of course it was
now we're making cauliflower buffalo cauliflower wings the pie has a shot she got us two tubs
relationship is i win either way because i generally side with one of the two
and then that's the way that it goes yeah so what do you think i'm i'm kind of i agree with
potentially ending it in case thank you it doesn't hurt too yeah we're still filming
but i also would like to keep filming because i think i was having so much fun filming okay okay
this is probably the most special item we own now there's actually two of them these are these
lanterns i told her she couldn't buy them because she was traveling in a band we didn't have room
for them but she bought them any so freaking glad she did she brought them everywhere she
went because she loved setting a vibe tonight joining us for dinner is lee's new brass
lantern never have been able to get without you we did not overpay for it and we probably tried 100
she wanted to make this cabbage special for her quarantine and for when she was here so
they're here with us and she will be here with us and she will be with all of us as
we continue to end the stigma around mental health celebrate the beautiful beautiful life she lived
and we just wanted to say that we love you lee we love you late and we're we're we're so lucky
to have had so much time with you to be loved and to love you so unconditionally was just
the greatest gift of ours and we know you're here i helped you more now than ever before
and we're gonna hold on to you and we're gonna be with you for the rest of our lives as well
and to everyone on our online community who is grieving please know that you are not alone if you
are experiencing mental illness please reach out for help because you matter to these loved ones
you already know this but we love you so much and i hope that we can end this video with some
really really fun special moments of our bright beautiful joyful thoughtful amazing stupidly
she was so stupid and of course we're going to leave some links to some good resources and
websites below i've had some good experiences with betterhelp it's not sponsored but i know
that that's a website or an app that you can download and they'll connect you with a therapist
and really you know call your loved one after this video call someone and just
tell them how much you love them and give them the space to tell you how they're really doing
just just sit there sit there and just be awkward in silence
and that lee was amazing at that she was amazing at everything she tried god she would crack people
open like you wouldn't believe we'd go and fill up gas and all of a sudden this guy was telling her
about her ex-wife and how devastated he is and like that would happen on the regular yeah you
know they often say that the brightest stars burn the quickest and i know that sounds really cliche
or whatever but i've never felt that anything is more true she's the brightest brightest star
and she was quite frankly too good for this world she wanted to say stay young and sexy 27 forever
yeah and she is we love you lee love you ladies i really enjoyed that dance party and i felt the
first half was just such a heartwarming genuine experience i know so i'm just gonna remember that
moment
good morning what's going on here ladies um literally i was just taking a nap
and the two of my sport my disgrace was like we have to film this scene
for our new workout program we're putting out so we're feeling spicy we're going hiking
hey everyone and i am no you have to be amazed for yourself
i lost my lines coming i never took drama in high school okay
and i am take 27 just want to give a shout out to lee for just being
a super champion love you girlfriend love you too
now i'm being tucked in this is an incredible experience oh i'm so glad one for the books
holy [ __ ] hey guys
it's great to be back i think somebody would pick me up after this vlog
sorry guys sorry to disappoint you all oh there's a [ __ ] shot okay meet me up there
yeah no problem hey where are you two headed
i don't know somewhere north yeah hop in sweet excuse me i'm in the middle of making a
masterpiece dessert yes so i'm simply roasting one marshmallow and to my right we have lee
creating um a full-on delicacy here we've got like you tell them i'll tell them okay
anjali okay so our first layer here is some bananas then we're going to crumble honey
graham crackers on top a little bit of
chocolate nibs sprinkled over cacao nibs some chai sprinkles and then of course
the marshmallow rip off the marshmallow then marshmallow's going to melt onto all of them
actually sasha shout out but also look at this are they seen jet set sash underscores
it's okay now it's okay okay no we have to wait i think it did pretty well
it's good it's better than nothing oh i like that what do you think i'm going to be right now
tell me what do you think would happen
i'm sorry
so selfishly i couldn't be more happy right now because i'm obsessed with golf
eamon's unreal and beck is so naturally athletic that she's gonna love it too okay
so we'll change we'll be right back okay you can turn it off
i sent you that photo and you're like give me cute photos the box is like oh yeah i do
is everyone ready cheers ladies cheers cheers to day two quarantine
many many more sing it girl
sing it again i don't want a weenie anyway
it's fine i'll burn that [ __ ] off oh my god i'm so sorry i literally ran over your camera
yeah somebody oh whoa the guy behind the camera is the true sugar addict let's be real here yeah
i should crouch with chocolate
sorry guys bye everyone oh it's so funny with us
you