Hello, everybody.
I'm Laura, the sister born two years after Luke. "The pregnant one" from the photo below.
August 19th, 2017 started off rough for me. I felt the effects of grief physically, like there was a big weight on my chest the moment I woke up. The first battle was just getting out of bed. Once I started my day, I had to convince myself over and over to keep going.
My desire to honor Luke's memory eventually won out.
We started with a shopping trip...
"Dear YMCA staff,
When I was a little girl at swim lessons, I was terrified to jump in the deep end. My teacher had me sit on the side and watch for awhile and then brought my older brother over from his lesson. He sat beside me and told me I could win against fear. He encouraged me to just jump! He passed away a month ago. Today, on what would have been his 34th birthday I want to remind you of his lesson- don't let your fears stop you! Just jump."
I'm Laura, the sister born two years after Luke. "The pregnant one" from the photo below.
August 19th, 2017 started off rough for me. I felt the effects of grief physically, like there was a big weight on my chest the moment I woke up. The first battle was just getting out of bed. Once I started my day, I had to convince myself over and over to keep going.
My desire to honor Luke's memory eventually won out.
We started with a shopping trip...
My helpers
Chips, granola bars, and clementines:)
Next, we drove to our local YMCA.
The place where my kids swim and do many other activities
The note I left with the snacks read:
When I was a little girl at swim lessons, I was terrified to jump in the deep end. My teacher had me sit on the side and watch for awhile and then brought my older brother over from his lesson. He sat beside me and told me I could win against fear. He encouraged me to just jump! He passed away a month ago. Today, on what would have been his 34th birthday I want to remind you of his lesson- don't let your fears stop you! Just jump."
The staff seemed excited to receive an unexpected snack, and I felt great to make others happy on a day that was so sad.
I'm looking forward to sorting through and posting the numerous other acts of kindness that have been emailed to me! As I told someone yesterday, receiving the pictures truly got me through the day. Thank you so much for your love of Luke, our family, and your desire to make this world better. I know Luke lives on through all of us.
Here are some other meaningful pictures from our day, celebrating my brother.
This was actually Friday evening. We made s'mores and played 20 questions. I'll never forget our childhood camping trips, exploring, laughing at personal jokes, telling stories, and playing games. I look forward to telling my girls all about this and even recreating the memories.
We had the adoration chapel to ourselves. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Luke.
Keep checking in here as we get more updates from our very first August Nineteenth: In Memory of Luke. I love you, brother.
I'll leave you all with lyrics that have comforted me lately.
"...Child, don't you know the first will be last and the last get a crown.
Now, I'm just a beggar in the presence of a King
But if it's true that you use broken things, then here I am, Lord, I'm all Yours...
The pages of history, they tell me its true, that it's never the perfect, its always the ones with the scars that you use..."
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