Laying of the Wreath

Each year at the DFW Veterans' Cemetary, there is a ceremony where wreaths are put on graves of the fallen.  We didn't attend last year but we went this year with some dear friends of my parents.  Mom and I did well - we didn't cry until we got home which is definitely an accomplishment!  Maybe it was because our friends were keeping us laughing!  Mr. Vessel's sense of humor is like my dad's.  He says some of the funniest things and even seemed to appreciate it when I told him his comment sounded like something Daddy would say!

The color guard played an active part of posting colors and saluting as each wreath for each service was brought forward and placed.

The bagpiper MUST have been colder than the rest of us!  But he did a great job and was a nice addition to the service.

This is the wreath for the Army - where Daddy served.

Volunteers put wreaths on many graves throughout the cemetary. 

I'm going to close out this blog at the end of the year - today - and publish it as a hardback book.  That way, we'll have a permanent document to read and remember and Eli can read it when he gets older and begins to ask questions about Grandad.  One more post will occur this afternoon before I send the blogs to BLURB.  Thanks for reading.

Time Passes

We've made it through another holiday season - with the exception of New Year's - without Daddy.  And, as time has passed, I feel less sad, at times for missing Daddy.  It isn't, of course, the life I thought we'd have at this point but it is what it is.  That being said, Mom is coping well - sometimes better than the rest of us!

I sometimes wish my present self could go back in time to my past self and give myself a big hug and tell her things will be okay.  Because, even though it's different without Daddy, it's okay.  Kinda like a new normal?

Anniversary, part 2

We visited Daddy's stone and put some more flowers in the grass.  The cemetary has rules about when you can put things on the graves and then stuff is picked up on weird intervals.

It was very sad.  We had a difficult time.  I know, in my heart, that Daddy isn't there and I know he doesn't need me to visit him there.  I talk to him all the time.  But, something about seeing his name on that stone...yuck!!

Eli said last week that when he's a pilot, he'd like to fly his airplane up to Heaven to see Grandad.  How sweet is my boy?

How many pictures of the cemetary do you need, though, right?

Miss you Daddy!!

A Year Anniversary

We made it past the summer and into the beginning of the school year.  We had some difficult times without Daddy, of course.  More on that in another post.

Instead of staying home on the anniversary of Daddy's death, we decided to go to the Mesquite Rodeo.  I know that Daddy would have loved taking Eli to the rodeo for the first time.  (We hadn't been since Eli was 6 weeks old when Grandpa Jim was here...)

Anyway, here are a couple of pics from our night there.