In the week before the third anniversary of Tom's death, I layered the green plastic vase cones from the cemetery with many, many coats of gel medium, acrylic paint and painted different motifs on each one. I then put the "everlasting flowers" in green foam and placed them in the cones. Here they are - it made me feel good to make and to leave them at graveside. November 14th was a bitterly cold, windy day at Fort Snelling and the flower arrangements felt warm and representative of my love for Tom.
Each anniversary mitigates the pain - each step along the path brings me to the next. Tom, forever in my heart - my life moves forward. Joy abides within.
Lovely idea Suzann ... thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteFinding ways to remember while moving forward makes sense to me :)
Hugs and blessings,
Suzann,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog through a kind of convoluted trip that started on Google. We have a mutual blogger friend in Rain so I may have read your comments on her site.
You and I have each lost our spouses unexpectedly and are experiencing the challenges of life after. Your recent posts sound like you are doing pretty well. Our loved ones will always be a part of us in everything that we do. I found a wonderful poem on Valentine's Day, 2006 that I posted that day on my blog and it has helped me. I think that is the one Rain was referring to in her comment to you.
I have found someone else to spend the rest of my life with. She is a lady who lost her spouse of over 46 years shortly after my Annie died and the way we met was through a Red Hatter chapter that Ann had started and was the original Queen of. We have both wondered if there wasn't some guidance from above in our meeting.
I guess we just need to continue our lives as our loved ones would have wanted us to and look for the good things that can and will come along. You have talked about the angels in your life in recent posts. They are there, aren't they.
I think whatever gives us pleasure in remembering a loved one no longer with us is helpful. What you have chosen to do graveside is lovely.
ReplyDeleteI serendipitiously was in Hawaii visiting family this year on the anniversary of my husband's death. The timing proved to be quite perfect.
I find myself concentrating on my husband's birthday, which precedes my own by a week or so, though the date of his death does not escape me, nor does it go by unnoticed.
Interesting how we each find solace in unique and special ways, just as were our relationships with our husbands, I expect.