May 23rd, 2009 my dear sweet mother celebrated her first year in Eternity.We honored her memory by visiting her gravesite in Mesa and taking purple flowers to her.
Mom loved purple....
She loved any tree or bush with purple flowers and was delighted when the bushes along the road going through the Williams Gateway airport were in bloom...she loved receiving flower arrangements with pretty purples, pinks, and blues in them. She would let you know if the flower arrangment had too many yellows and oranges.
Dad, DeAnn, Matt, and I went and got flowers and headed to the cemetary. Her headstone was just recently laid in the ground in April so it's been there a short time and it was pretty messy with leaves, dirt, and some of the stuff they used on the granite when carving it. We got some water and DeAnn and Matt washed it off pretty good. We put the flowers on the grave and took some pictures.
We talked about some of the things that we remembered and what the mourning process has been like.Some people mourn right away, others hold it in and mourn later when they are ready, some mourn privately, and some mourn with family and friends. For me, the mourning process comes in stages. It continues. You remember things and experience things that will cause a new emotion or feeling within you and you go through it but it doesn't all happen at once.
One of the things that I remembered yesterday, that I will never forget is the AM/PM story:
One Saturday my mom and I were going to the mall and we stopped at the AM/PM for gas. The sign above the gas pump said that if you purchased so many gallons of gas you received a bottle of dasani water. Mom loved dasani water so she purchased enough gas to get her a bottle and me a bottle. She went into get her water and then came running out, jumped in the sequoia and said..hurry let's go, he's calling the cops on me. I put the car in reverse and sped out of there. She was in a panic and mad as all get out. When she finally told me what happened I about died laughing. She had gone in and gotten her two bottles of water, gone to the counter and he refused to give her the two bottles. He told her that just because she got double the gallons required for one bottle, the limit was just one. She was mad and said the sign did not say that. He argued with her so she took the bottles of water and kind of threw them at him. He grabbed the phone and told her he was calling the cops...so out she ran.
That's my mother...lol Althought it was an emotional day, we really focused on the positive things and not the sad part of it. We miss her but know she is where she needs to be and we will do what we need to do to be with her again.
More pictures from yesterday
