A Day of Remembrance

Sorry there's no photos to go with this post today. I would have loved to get a picture of the beautiful bouquet and the roses and also the balloons we sent up to heaven with papa. But Gene specifically stated that this was not something to scrap. So I respected his feelings and didn't take the camera with us.

We planned to go to Papa's grave today and leave flowers with the boys. The florist gave me the idea to release a balloon with a note attached for each of the boys. We could tell them that the God will take the balloon and letter up to heaven to Papa. I loved the idea! Especially for Joshua, Papa has really been on his mind this past month. It's almost as if he instinctively knew that it's been almost a year.

Everything went wrong on the way to Papa's grave. I ordered flowers from my usual florist. She just recently opened up a second location and this new location was on the way to where we had to go, so I had her have the order there instead. Well, apparently she has employed a man who used to have a very successful floral shop in our area but since retired. I think he's lost his touch because nothing was ready when we got there to pick it up.

I ordered on Tuesday. It was supposed to be two red roses (one for each of the boys to place at the grave), two helium balloons and a small bouquet of flowers(for Gene and I to place at the grave).

He headed back to the cooler and asked me if they were going on a grave, then do I need greens. I thought he meant for the two rosebuds. I said no, it's just for the boys to have something to put there. He came out with a pink carnation, a sprig of yellow daisies, a bright red carnation, a sprig of burgandy flowers and put them all on top of each other. He then asked me, "This is going on a guy's grave, right?" I said yes. He got a wide long green ribbon and a thinner orange ribbon. Then tied them around the bunch and presented it to me. No bow, no baby's breath, no greens, no ribbon curling. Nothing. It was horrible looking. I don't usually complain, and I didn't want to hurt his feelings either, so I paid, left and got in the car.

Gene asked me how much they charged and I told him $10.70. He said, we could have done that ourselves for three bucks! I told him that we would put the roses on the grave and release the balloons with the boys letters to papa, but we were going to the other location where the owner was to show her and have her do something else. I mean it was that ugly. Gene didn't want to, since we were already late (he had to work this afternoon) I told him that this wasn't Shelly's work (the floral shop owner) and she needed to know what they were doing at this other location because it was her reputation.

Then we released the balloons. Kyle's went up free and clear. Joshua's brushed past the top of the ONLY tree branch in the area, popped, and hung there at the top of the tree. He started bawling and saying that, now papa wouldn't know that he loves him. Josh had written, LOVE and drew a heart on all four sides of the paper. Gene tried to reassure him that papa knew how much he loved him and started crying himself.

Of course it had to be Joshua's balloon that popped, not Kyle's. Kyle would have shrugged his shoulders and said, oh well....papa knows I love him. But it had to be Joshua's blue balloon.

So we went to grammy's house and I insisted on running over to the florist. I called her first and let her know that I wasn't happy with the flowers I was given. That it was just something I couldn't leave at the grave and we were pressed for time and I also needed another balloon because one had hit a tree and popped. It's a 10 min drive from where I was to the shop.

When I got there, she had a beautiful bouquet with three tulips, pink carnations, purple iris (I think), white and yellow daisies, a single red rose at the top and baby's breath and greens and a beautiful pale green ribbon bow with the ends curled slightly ready to go. It was gorgeous!

I handed her the flowers I was given at the other location and she said, "I can see why you wouldn't leave that at the grave. That's just WRONG! He should know better and we'll have a long talk." She thanked me for bringing it to her attention and wouldn't accept anymore money for the bouquet she made up and the third balloon.

The second trip to the grave went much better. We released Joshua's balloon in the field in front of grammy's house and watched it for a good 5 minutes. Josh had his hands up to his eyes and after a few seconds said, "It's going up to papa!"

Gene and I had a few minutes at the grave alone with the kids in the car. We placed the new bouquet at the headstone and just hugged. It was then that the tears hit me. I wasn't emotional at all until then. I guess when there is so much preparation it's hard to really be still and think about things.

So to sum things up. Be still and know that He is God. It's in those quiet, still moments that He is able to touch your heart. This is something that I've never understood fully. I'm just now beginning to understand the importance of taking quiet moments amist all the chaos and flurry of day to day life.