Well, I haven't actually fallen into the great abyss. It just feels like it. May 3rd marked the one year anniversary of Kel's death. There was a small gathering of her family, a few friends, and a couple of her former players. It was good to be together. Her daughters, niece and nephew wrote messages to her and tied them to balloons that were released at 8pm (the time she died). Then we all sat around the outdoor fire pit and took turns telling her daughters stories about their mom.
I shared a story about her bachelorette party. Surprising that it would be appropriate to tell, but it was. I planned that particular event which started off fairly normal, dinner out, night on the town and then a small group of us (10 to be exact), returned to my condo, slept and when the sun came up, we kidnapped Kel and flew her to Disneyland (her favorite place in the world). She had no idea where we were going until we got her onto the plane and the person getting her into her seat made her bump her head on the overhead luggage compartment. We never would have been able to pull it off post 9/11, but this was 10 years ago.
To keep Kel from knowing where we were going, we blindfolded her and put a Walkman (pre Ipod days) on her and turned it way up. We also took great joy in dressing her in Cinderella bridal garb; socks with lace ruffles, a too-small veil, plastic jewelry with Cinderella's likeness on the pendant and earrings. This was a true accomplishment as Kelly never wore anything frilly without significant protest.
The part of the story I told the girls about was the canoe ride. We had all boarded the canoe, joined by a lovely family of three who were seated in the back. Midway through rowing ourselves around the island, Kel decided we were going to stop rowing. So, we all took our paddles up out of the water and refused to row any more. The Disneyland "castmembers" (two cute young lads) opted to give up as well and sat down at their posts in the bow and stern. I remember looking back at that poor family on their vacation. They looked mortified. The canoe drifted, other canoes passed us. I don't recall how long we sat there, we obviously began rowing again at some point because we made it to our lunch at Club 33.
Anyway, her daughter Mia seemed to enjoy the story and I was glad to be able to share it with her. It's been a rough few weeks. Mia's birthday party was the end of April, the 3rd was the family get together (and lunch with Kel's high school friends who've kindly adopted me into their circle), Mothers' Day followed and this coming weekend will be Mia's first communion. There's also a big memorial gathering for the community on May 21st which I'll have to miss because my kids have their first quilt appearing in a quilt show in Northern California.
So, hopefully I'll get back to some more regular postings. Lord knows that craigslist isn't running short on typos.
I shared a story about her bachelorette party. Surprising that it would be appropriate to tell, but it was. I planned that particular event which started off fairly normal, dinner out, night on the town and then a small group of us (10 to be exact), returned to my condo, slept and when the sun came up, we kidnapped Kel and flew her to Disneyland (her favorite place in the world). She had no idea where we were going until we got her onto the plane and the person getting her into her seat made her bump her head on the overhead luggage compartment. We never would have been able to pull it off post 9/11, but this was 10 years ago.
To keep Kel from knowing where we were going, we blindfolded her and put a Walkman (pre Ipod days) on her and turned it way up. We also took great joy in dressing her in Cinderella bridal garb; socks with lace ruffles, a too-small veil, plastic jewelry with Cinderella's likeness on the pendant and earrings. This was a true accomplishment as Kelly never wore anything frilly without significant protest.
The part of the story I told the girls about was the canoe ride. We had all boarded the canoe, joined by a lovely family of three who were seated in the back. Midway through rowing ourselves around the island, Kel decided we were going to stop rowing. So, we all took our paddles up out of the water and refused to row any more. The Disneyland "castmembers" (two cute young lads) opted to give up as well and sat down at their posts in the bow and stern. I remember looking back at that poor family on their vacation. They looked mortified. The canoe drifted, other canoes passed us. I don't recall how long we sat there, we obviously began rowing again at some point because we made it to our lunch at Club 33.
Anyway, her daughter Mia seemed to enjoy the story and I was glad to be able to share it with her. It's been a rough few weeks. Mia's birthday party was the end of April, the 3rd was the family get together (and lunch with Kel's high school friends who've kindly adopted me into their circle), Mothers' Day followed and this coming weekend will be Mia's first communion. There's also a big memorial gathering for the community on May 21st which I'll have to miss because my kids have their first quilt appearing in a quilt show in Northern California.
So, hopefully I'll get back to some more regular postings. Lord knows that craigslist isn't running short on typos.
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