Remembering

Memorial Day. Okay, it's a given. The tears are apt to flow for anyone who has lost someone near and dear to their heart. So, no pretending. My babes have been on my mind all weekend.


Some may think it morbid that I am putting pictures of their resting place on my blog. But, here is my reasoning. Many of you will never be able to make it out to St. Patrick's Cemetery in Eddyville, NE personally, so I want to give you a virtual visit. Many of you have traveled the journey of Hannah and Sammy's lives with us and you deserve the visit. You deserve to feel the joy that I feel when I visit their little place. I want you to see the headstones that Bill and I designed for them as it is an ever-present reminder that though Sam and Hannah are not with us as we thought they would be, they are with us as our spirited little angels. And I feel they are especially with their triplet sissy, Camille. Their lives may have been short, but their legacy is long.

These pictures are actually not from today. They are from Memorial Day 2005. I wasn't able to make it back to Sumner due to "the incident" described in "A First Time for Everything." Camille and I bachelor-etted it in Omaha to be on the safe side and left the visiting out west to Daddy and Livvy.

Still, I didn't need a visit to think about my babes. After Camille went to bed last night, I worked on some of Sam and Hannah's scrapbook pages, actually the page from Sam's funeral. ceremony. Again, some may think it morbid, but it is as an important of a day for our family as has been any birthday or Christmas. And it was a beautiful celebration.

Today was a beautiful day, so Camille and I went for a long, long walk. She donned her headphones to listen to an audio version of "Green Eggs and Ham," and I donned mine to listen to some of my favorite tunes.

The lyrics of one song particularly struck me, as the printed paper I was using for Sam's pages last night said, "You'll always be a part of me." I had never considered Mariah Carey's song, "Always Be My Baby" anything other than a love song about people dating, but today, the words struck me as a love song about my babies. Of course, I wasn't listening to the Mariah Carey verson, I was listening to the David Cook version. Kudos, Mariah, for writing the song but double kudos to David Cook who sings it in a way that actually reaches the heart.The words that struck me so are:

You'll always be a part of me.

I'm part of you indefinitely.

Ooooh don't you know you can't escape me.

Oooh darling, cause you'll always be my baby.

We will linger on.

Time can't erase a feeling this strong.

No way, you're never gonna shake me

Oooh darling, cause you'll always be my baby.

So Sam and Hannah, here's to you. You'll always be a part of me.

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