This email is kind of the final chapter. We just got back from Arizona where we finally had a memorial service for my mom. We dedicated a piece of Celia's Rainbow Garden to my mother on November 22nd, 2005.
For those of you that we were able to spend time with us over the week of Thanksgiving thank you so much for the hospitality. I was very glad to meet more of my parent�s friends and to experience life on E Street for a few days. If you were able to come by the Gardens to help us dedicate a spot to my mother, thank you so much. If you were not able to make it, I hope you enjoy the pictures below.
Abbe's favorite moments were Quad running and watching the cartoon network on Papa's satellite dish (we don't have cable), and Gabe enjoyed playing cars in the gravel with Aunt Deloris and eating taters and gravy with the neighbors.
I think my favorite part of the trip was the day I went to the Garden by myself and walked around looking at the different creative memorials and enjoying the beauty of the Gardens as a whole. It also gave me the time to stand in my mom�s spot and just be still and think of her.
If you are interested in the pictures from the different events, please visit the links below.
Photo Albums
Several people wanted to know if I could send them what I said at the memorial. It is below (in case you could not understand me at the time:)
I want to thank everyone for coming out today to be with us.
I also want to thank everyone for the support we received over the last couple of years. Knowing that mom and our family were in so many people�s prayers and hearts helped a lot.
Most of you know the snow bird version of my mom and not the house wife from Chewelah. She has always been loyal and would do anything for her family. She picked the marshmallows out of my cereal growing up just because I wanted her to, only to have me put them back in the bowl as I ate it. She would defend those she cared for whether they deserved to be defended or not. My mother was also very much an introvert and did not like opening herself to people outside of our immediate family. Growing up most of our neighbors did not know her and she only had a couple people she would even stop and visit with when in town.
It seems fitting that the desert is the place that she spent her last years and the place that she seemed to find her true self. As I said before, my mom, for much of my growing up years was somewhat prickly like a cactus especially to strangers or people she felt threatened by. She didn�t seem to need or want many friends kind of like the desert doesn�t need a lot of water. But after coming to the desert (even after the first winter she spent here) she started to change. My sister, wife and I would discuss how different she acted around new people. She was more outgoing, accepting, laughed and smiled more. She truly seemed to blossom in the desert. No longer was she so prickly (yes there were still a few), but more than that now she had color and beauty that she wasn�t hiding behind the prickles anymore. And now even though she is gone we remember her for her beautiful blossoms and forgive her for her prickles.
In the Bible the desert is the place where Israel first encountered God and faithfully responded to Him (Hos 2:14; Jer 2:2-3).
The last couple years my mom went through another change as well, and that was a softening of her heart towards God. I am so thankful that she really began to know Him and did not blame Him for what was happening to her physical body. She was able to see Him working in the details and was grateful as we all were for the last year and all of its many blessings.
I thank you all for the part you played in helping my mom to blossom here in the desert. She told us more than once that the friends she made here were the best friends of her life. I can understand why she cherished you all so much. Thank you.
I�d like to finish with this poem:
God saw
that she was getting tired
and a cure was not to be.
So He put His arms around her
and whispered come with me.
With tearful eyes we watched her suffer
and saw her fade away.
Although we loved her dearly,
we could not make her stay.
A golden heart stopped beating,
Hard working hands to rest.
God broke our hearts to prove to us
He only takes the best.
We love you Mom and miss you so much!!!!!
Please also visit the official Celia's Rainbow Garden website at http://www.celiasrainbowgardens.com.
Thanks,
Gaylon