After heart surgery, one man chose to celebrate life by moving to the cottage

Grant Cruickshank is certain that his cottage saved his life.

After running a successful tool business with his wife Sheri for 25 years, Grant was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm, a severe heart condition that worsens with stress. For the next four years, Grant planned for his retirement, eventually selling both his company and house in Midhurst, Ontario. But by that time, his seven-days-a-week job had taken its toll on his heart, and unless his lifestyle changed dramatically, surgery was imminent. If the bulge in his heart grew one millimetre more, Grant would have to go under the knife.

Shortly after, he and Sheri moved to their cottage, a three-bedroom bungalow on Paudash Lake that’s been in Grant’s family since the 1950s.