We finally pulled out of the driveway and Abigail had mentioned that we should bring Corey a Reese's peanut butter cup since that was one of his favorite candies. I agreed it was a great idea so we made a stop and bought a king sized package. Once at the cemetery the girls bolted from the car. We sat around Corey's stone and the girls laid out their drawings for him and told him about them. It broke my heart to see Abigail's. Being the little artist that she is, she drew 5 pictures. One was a picture of her standing next to Corey's casket with a sad face and tears. Another said, "I miss Dad so much." A third one read, "I love Dad so much." Another one had a big sad face and the last one made me smile and cry at the same time. She drew a picture of a snowman, Daddy and her, all in a row and all wearing big smiles. This is one of her favorite memories with Corey. We have some beautiful pictures of the 2 of them out in the snow making a big 'ole snowman. Their smiles are so bright. I think Abigail was 3 years old at the time. Allison's picture below is the one with the big happy face. She did it on orange paper because orange was one of Corey's favorite colors.
I have some more pictures to add, but it is taking forever for them to upload...I'll try to get them on here tomorrow...it's getting kind of late and I'm wiped.
We left the cemetery and headed to Newington to enjoy lunch at Newick's. This was one of Corey's favorite places to eat and we would often end up there for birthdays and Father's days in years past. Corey loved their fried haddock. Lunch was great...we had a table next to the window so we could look out on the water. It was a gorgeous day today and the girls and I had some really good time spent together.
When thinking about writing this post I was reminded of a blog post I read 4 years back. A woman named Kim had lost her husband suddenly in March of 2007. Many of you will probably recognize who I'm talking about. She was 9 months pregnant with her 8th child, due any day and having regular contractions (if I'm remembering correctly) when her husband became suddenly ill and was taken to the hospital. I don't believe he lived more than 24 hours after they arrived. An aneurysm cut his life short at just a few days shy of age 38 leaving his wife widowed with 7 children and an 8th on the way. Can you imagine having to plan a funeral while 9 months pregnant and due any minute? The emotions she must have experienced had to have been intense...to say the least! Seven days after his death, their son was born. I was 8 months pregnant with Allison at that time and when I received the emails asking for prayer for the family I was shaken by the tragedy of their situation. I couldn't imagine being widowed at such a young age with a large family and having to give birth only days after such a horrendous loss. I followed Kim's blog for a while and a few months later I was catching up on her site. It was Father's Day 2007, June 15th. I cried as I read through her post and listened to a song that she had picked to dedicate to her late husband as a gift to him on that Father's Day. I was so sad for her at the loss of her soul mate and could not imagine experiencing the loss of my husband at such a young age. Our new baby girl had just arrived not quite a month before and we were in the best years of our lives, people told Corey and I. Four years later, I can do more than just imagine losing my soul mate...I'm where Kim was...a widow trying to get through that first Father's Day without my babies' Daddy. I didn't cry too much today until I listened again to the song Kim had on her blog. It took me a while to find her blog and to figure out the song. All I could remember was that it was perfect. It's called Breakfast Table, by Chris Rice. (Disclaimer: I like this video but was bummed with the beach picture that got thrown in...you'll see...sorry ;)
This is my gift to you Corey. I love you always and dedicate this song to you...You were my taste of Heaven. We'll have forever.
