Sunday, June 16, 2024

Sunday, June 16, 2024

Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2008. I will never forget that moment in time! It was Mattie's kindergarten end of year party. It was held at a local park. I volunteered to work the event. Any time the teacher wanted a volunteer, I was there! I wanted to spend as much time interacting with Mattie and sharing in his experiences. Thank goodness I did this, because there were NO second chances. This photo was of Mattie with his best buddies, Charlotte and Campbell. Here is the funny part about this! These three had plans to always be friends and to go to the same college together. Then a month later, Mattie was diagnosed with cancer.  

Quote of the day: One day you'll finally see, your biggest mistake was not loving me. ~ Nishan Panwar

When we moved to Washington, DC in 1993, I remember going to Home Depot and purchasing yellow lilies for our deck garden. We cultivated these lilies for decades. When Mattie was born, we noticed that these lilies opened up in their glory around Father's Day. Which is why I always call these lilies 'our Father's Day lilies.' I just can't wrap my head around the fact that I have now lost both Mattie and Peter. I look at these lilies and they are painful reminders of my devastation. This is my first Father's Day without Peter, and his loss signifies so much to me. One of which is a piece of Mattie has now been taken from me, because I viewed our marital bond as a union united to preserve Mattie's memory and legacy. Now I manage all of this alone and it's crushing. CRUSHING I TELL YOU. 

Last night I was watering the garden. Look who came to say hi! This was quite a big painted turtle and showed NO FEAR!

This morning, I had a card for my dad, a gift from Shutterfly, and two special cookies set up for my dad. One cookie said... #1 Dad and the other was a chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookie!

The happy camper! After he ate his breakfast, he opened up his gifts. He couldn't wait to eat one of the cookies! Cookies are the breakfast of champions!

My dad has never been into art. However, in his memory care program, there is a lot of arts and crafts. My dad does painting, drawing, coloring, and even clay. I snapped many photos of his artistic creations and made two placemats! One for him and the pink one for my mom. 

My dad was so touched by these gifts, as he is proud of his art work. He said to me today, that maybe he should have been an artist! 

More of my dad's creations! I used them to make a placemat for my mom. 

This is my father-in-law. I received this photo today of him opening up my card! I surprised him with two tomato plants and one basil plant on Friday. I knew these would be gifts he would love. I recall many summers visiting Boston, touring their gardens and as I went along, Don (my father-in-law) would be plucking tomatoes right off the vine and popping them in his mouth. He loves tomatoes that much. So I thought that would be the perfect gift. 

Three things to be thankful for:

1. Having parents who are alive and love me.
2. Having in-law who are alive and love me.
3. Advil! The tooth that was worked on this week is now bothering me. I am hoping the pain subsides because I truly do not need another root canal right now.