Day 147: All week long, I’ve focused on memorials—the ways we place physical memorials as markers of remembrance, and the ways we personalize intangible markers, like singing songs and unfurling flags and eating Peanut Buster Parfaits.
My mother used to tell me that memorials were more for the living, than for the dead. She explained it to me with a helium balloon - our loved one is the balloon, out of sight in heaven, and the memorial is the string. We living folk grasp that string because it’s our only tether to someone we can no longer see. “But don’t worry. They’re up there, at the other end of the string,” she assured me. My Mom was a smart lady.
Today is the birthday of my other mom. It’s her first birthday back in heaven. She would be 93 years old today. Her absence is still hurts. It is also her first Memorial Day. It’s also my husband’s first Memorial Day with both his parents in heaven. It’s not easy when both sides of a joint headstone are complete. Yet, he now grips that string that tethers him to another heavenward balloon.
Our moms were friends. I can’t help but imagine them in heaven, visiting about their kids and grandkids and great-grandkids. I bet there’s a birthday party for Zenna today. A big party!
I also bet there’s a huge celebration for everyone in heaven this weekend, as millions of us on earth get a better grip on our balloon string memorials that tether us to them—that help us to remember them. According to my mother, they can feel the tug of that string just like we do. #MomsCompanyTowels #Memorials #HeavenwardBalloons #TheTugOfTheTether
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