A funny thing

Grief is a funny thing. All human beings will experience it. We know that our parents will probably die before us and as we age we will lose more family members and friends. This knowledge and even acceptance of these facts does not make grief any easier to bear. Losing a child, even an adult one, just adds another facet to the process. A year and a half later I can be driving down the road on a beautiful September afternoon and the reality strikes like a punch in the gut and the unending supply of tears begin again.

James and his first love.....books!

That's probably not exactly true. His first love was probably action figures. Once he started reading though he pretty much never stopped. We used to tell him it was rude to read when he had a friend in the car on the way to hockey practice. I guess there's worse things for a kid to do!

For Christmas in 1997 I gave James The Hobbit. He didn't have much interest in reading it until the next summer, however, by summer's end he had not only read it and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy but he'd read them more than once. And he was still only 8 years old! He read those books over and over again as the years went by.

Another great memory is when we watched him anticipate delivery of a sequel of one of the Harry Potter books. We were skeptical that Chapters would actually deliver it on the day it was released. The van pulled up and there was one excited boy in our house. By the next day he'd read it twice!

A journey of possibilites

How do you deal with the death of a child, even an adult one? How does one cope with a parent's worst nightmare? We are blessed to have the opportunity and means to go to Africa to participate in a school building mission. We will do this in memory of our son. Do you think it will lessen the sadness we feel at his loss? Not a chance! What is might do however is help us disperse the excess love we have in our hearts now that our boy is not on this earth to receive it. And so we will go.......hearts heavy with grief......and minds open to possibilities.