Tonight
is my son Jeffery's wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Tomorrow
night he will be married to a wonderful woman that has not only been a
tremendous support to Jeff but to myself and our extended family during
these difficult months and weeks. I know that Cees had wanted so much
to be there and see this young man married to this lovely lady...after
all, he had helped raise him since he was two years old. I know that he
will be there, in our hearts and in the love that he helped create in
this family.
My
thoughts also go toward a precious friend that will be attempting a
summit climb on Mt. Rainer on the same day as Jeff's wedding. Caroline
Powell and 6 other wonderful women, I call them "The Heavenly Seven",
will be climbing for Breast Cancer Awareness and Cancer Awareness in
general. She made Cees' acquaintance in Longview last February and they
had a wonderful conversation...and made quick friends. He was always so
easy to talk to and with. Please take a moment to hold these women up
in prayer for strength and safety as they climb to the summit and back
for their cause. They are not professional climbers, just everyday
folks like you and I, but they feel the need to do this for those that
can't. What a tremendous gift they have to offer....!
I
find it difficult to comprehend that tonight will also be five weeks
since Cees has gone home to be with the Lord. It amazes me that life
goes on with a vengeance.. There is no stopping it, nor slowing it
down...it waits for no one. In a way, I guess, that's good. But as much
as we would like, we can't go backward we must go forward.
In
my forward motion, I have returned to work and I think it helps
somewhat to be with my extended work family...I've been at Sysco Food
Service going on 11 years and each and every one of my co-workers have
shown such caring and concern. It's good to be able to just be yourself
with those that you work with as one works through the grief process. I
can only hope that my children have the same blessings as I do when it
comes to that. I think they do.
It's
also good for the girls, Mercy, Spirit, Faith & Ruby to be back
in a regular routine. Little Faith is 12 weeks old today, it just
amazes me. I took her down for her 3 month pictures this week. I will
be posting them to her page on my kennel web page. Mercy will be coming
into heat and I will go ahead as Cees and I had planned and breed her.
The puppies will keep me occupied and there is just nothing like a soft
warm fuzzy puppy to help remind you that life is still good!
My
daughter Tracie called me the other day and shared an inspirational
moment. She has a friend that has a black T-Shirt with a pair of eyes
on it. And on the shirt it reads, "As God Closes One Door, He Always
Opens Another....It's Just The "Hallways" That Suck." I thought that
was pretty cool....so I guess this is the hallway and I will wait to
see what's behind the new door. This next year will be the most
difficult I think...a year of "hallways" and "doors"...a year
of firsts and getting through, but Cees would want to know that we
could do it...he was never one to look the other way when something
needed to be done and he wouldn't want us to do that either...SO, we
will look straight ahead and muster the courage to forge straight
through those doors and see what is on the other side.
There's
still a lot going on in our lives...Cees' son Don and his lovely
new wife, Andrea were just married on the 1st of May. They
will be having a wedding reception the 26th of August. Another
opportunity to have the family together to laugh and rejoice and
remember. One can't have too many of those kind of moments.
Then
we will have Labor Day weekend. This will be another difficult
first...we were usually building something on the house that weekend.
I'm sure I and the girls will find something to do or somewhere to
go...or, perhaps, we'll do nothing and stay home.
The
following week on September 8th at 3:00 O'clock in the afternoon, we
will have Cees' committal service. It will be a full military service
complete with a bugle played Taps, a flag presentation and a gun
salute. I think it will be the beginning of us truly being able to go
forward...and a place to help time slow down just a little, a place to
go and rest, reflect and remember a wonderful husband and father, but
foremost a really good and very much missed friend... Lynn
An anonymous poster added
this beautiful verse to our guest book...I wanted to share with you
all:
God saw that he was
getting tired, and a cure was not to be, so He put His arms around him,
and whispered, "Come with me".
With tear-filled eyes we watched him suffer, and saw him fade away,
although we loved him dearly, we could not make him stay.
A golden heart stopped beating, Hard working hands to rest, God broke
our hearts to prove to us, He only takes the best.
