I started off Luke's birthday in the Chicago O'Hare airport, on my way back from visiting my sister Laura. We were waiting for our flight when midnight came, and I got a chance to go off by myself for awhile and talk to Luke.
After I was home, my Dad, Mom, sister Erica and sister Liz came to pick me up, stopping first to take drinks and snacks to the police station.
Then, we stopped by St. Bernard Church with some Snickers for the altar servers (we tried not to take too many for ourselves!). We put a picture of Luke altar serving beside it as well as a note.
At 1:30, it was tattoo time. First, I went. I got "Arrivederci", meaning "Until I see you again" in Italian (a language Luke was fluent in and loved).
Dinner time! We had risotto (courtesy of my sister Erica), one of Luke's favorites, and also tiramisu (courtesy of my husband Nick), Luke's signature dessert. Luke taught Nick step-by-step how to make the recipe a few years ago, so it was pretty authentic!
After dinner, we sat around the dining room table and read aloud some of the funny stories about Luke from one of my Dad's books. Then, we read a passage about life that Luke wrote, quoted in another of my Dad's books, "Returning to the Light." The excerpt reminded us just how in touch with God Luke was as well as the magnitude of his faith.
It had just stopped raining, so we drove to the cemetery where Luke is buried, right below St. Bernard Church. We brought some flowers and sang him Happy Birthday. We then listened to the song "Hallelujah" that was played at his funeral. It was hard, but we did have to smile a little when we noticed glitter all around the grave. We wondered why, and then we remembered a story about Luke one of his good friends told us. Long story short, she gave him a card FULL of glitter at one point, and it was all over his apartment for months. It was a running joke. We found out that indeed, she was the one who sprinkled glitter there, as a happy birthday to him. It reminded us about his sense of humor and how wonderful it was to hear him laugh.
We then drove to Spirit Life, the drug rehab center where Luke used to work. We brought the nurses there cookies.
Lastly, we came home and spent time together as a family. Half of the table played Monopoly and half played Rummy. We talked about his long, competitive Monopoly games with his nephews and his "Rummy 5000" tournament with me. We laughed and were happy thinking about the memories.
August 19th was a terribly sad day, since there was such a void where Luke should have been. However, it was also amazing. I got to spend time with family and talk about great memories with Luke. I also got to assist my family in helping people, which I know Luke would have loved. I also got a permanent reminder of him on my wrist, the tattoo. My other favorite part of the day was reading emails of others that honored him, which was so heartwarming. I can't wait to share these with all of you. Overall, I felt that Luke would have loved his birthday this year. Love you, brother.
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