Saturday, December 8, 2012Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2007. We took Mattie one weekend to Brookside Gardens in Maryland. This Garden does an incredible holiday light display. Unlike the typical displays that you drive through, this one requires you to park and walk through gardens. Yes it was cold, but it is worth the walk! The gardens look magical and it is a wonderful way to experience the lights and the season. Mattie loved the whole event and after the walk, we entered the visitor center to warm up where they served cold cocoa (of course Mattie wasn't going to drink that ---- it was a chocolate product ---- which he HATED!) and cookies. While inside, Mattie posed with one of the adorable statues. This photo always makes me laugh!
Quote of the day: Loss alone is but the wounding of a heart; it is memory that makes it our ruin. ~ Brian Ruckley
You are used to hearing about my typical day on the blog. However, last night while Peter and I were out to dinner in our complex, we bumped into our friend Maria. Maria is an avid blog reader and she knew exactly how I was doing. But she then turned to Peter and asked him how he was doing. Maria began working in our complex in the same year we moved in. So she has seen me migrate from a graduate student, a professional, a mom, and then parents battling childhood cancer. Maria's conversation inspired me to tell you a story about Peter.
Peter got up bright and early today. Not to do something nice for himself, if we can even figure out what that is these days, but instead to take one of our neighbors out to a gardening center to buy a Christmas Tree. This woman lost her significant other last year and it was this couple's holiday tradition to go to a particular gardening center to pick out a tree. Though her significant other is no longer physically with her, she wanted to continue the tradition. Yet the gardening center is out in Virginia and she doesn't have a car. This is not the first kind deed Peter has done for this neighbor. He has gone grocery shopping for her on the weekends and has even escorted her to the doctor when she needed surgery. I am not sure any of my readers would know any of this if I did not write about it. Peter is not the kind of husband who needs to be prodded to do the right thing. He just gravitates to do good deeds, which may be one of the reasons I fell in love with Peter in college.
They picked out a tree together, Peter set it up for her, trimmed it accordingly, and this evening she sent Peter a photo of the lights and some of the decorations she has adorned the tree with.
When Peter came back home after the tree set up, he smelled like a pine tree. This fragrance reminded me of all the trees Peter and I bought together and decorated. Seems like this all happened in another lifetime. It is very hard to go to friends' homes and see the signs of Christmas everywhere, the excitement of purchasing presents for children, and hearing about parties and festivities. These feelings are no longer in our hearts and minds, and perhaps this is yet another journey.... the quest to find peace during these holiday seasons without the joy of Mattie in our lives. It is a tall order.
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