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Back in October, on a bright, beautiful, sunny day, I had what the kids and I called a "ceremony for daddy". It was just the three of us.
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The intention of this ceremony was to give my children a more formal way of honoring their father. I had each of them write letters to Joe....Alyssa told me what to write and Luke wrote his own letter. In Alyssa's letter she said over and over that she missed him and that she missed cuddling with him and having him read her books. She said she wanted him to come back. Luke's letter was about wanting to play his video games with his dad again and play baseball. He also wrote many times that he missed him and told him his first grade teacher's name and that we went apple picking.
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We blew up balloons with a helium tank and brought the cd player out to the corner of the yard where the tree is that I planted for him. Each of the kids chose a song to play at the ceremony. Luke chose "Life is a Highway" and Alyssa chose "Sweet Escape".
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Alyssa and Luke sat on the stone wall and listened to the songs. When they were done, Luke read his letter out loud. Then Alyssa tried to "read" her's from memory, but Luke ended up reading it for her. Both of my kids read and said the words with no problem, without any tears. My heart was in agony at the sight of them.
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When they were done I read my (short) letter too. I read one sentence then looked up from my paper at my two kids standing there looking at me and I started to cry. My poor kids. They just looked at me and listened as I got the words out through my tears. Looking back at it I wonder how I stood at the funeral before hundreds of people and did not shed a tear. But in my back yard looking at these two 3-foot tall little children I could barely contain myself.
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After that was done we tied the letters to the balloons and sent them off, high into the sky.
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Below are some pictures from that day-
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