Cement: Memories

The pictures I am posting are a couple of memories in cement. The handprints in the cement was done probably over 20 years ago, the last time Buffalo Grove replaced our curbs. You can see Katie's little hand, Chris' print on the left and Greg's on the right and if you look close up on the top to the left of Katie's, Fred the gerbil's name and little print. What kind of mom lets her kids put their pets' paw in wet cement? Me, I guess. Laurie must have been either too little or maybe not born yet. I suspect Greg with his incredible memory, will write back when he sees this, with the exact date. The next pics show what is going on on our street right now. New curbs are being poured again and the section where those old handprints were etched so many years ago has yet to be poured. I hope I am home the day that section is filled in so we can add some new prints or maybe a Bible verse.

And then there is the day we had our new sidewalk poured at the front of the house in the fall of 2004. The sidewalk was a great gift from my nephew who deals with cement everyday. I still laugh remembering how just minutes after the cement finisher had completed his task, one of the painters painting our living room forgot what was happening just outside the front door and stepped right into the freshly smoothed stoop! Oops! Later after the repairs were made, I found a cool little cross we had bought in Mexico while Laurie was living there and I pressed it into the corner of the stoop. It's a great little reminder both of her and that trip and who we serve.

And more cement. The edge at Lake Michigan. The walls we wrote on on Laurie's birthday last year...Still hard for me to see.

And what I know is it can be too easy to get stuck, maybe not in cement, but stuck in grief. Ironically, this was the topic of our first meeting for the spring session of Grief Support, "Stuck in Grief" Monday night. It's easy to get stuck there. At debrief later, leaders shared how the evening had gone. The stories of more suicides, some murders was enough to make one weep. I had the great gift the very next day to spend some really great quiet time in Chris and Christa's new backyard that backs up to a woodsy area and just reflect. Just me and little grandson Reece listening to birds, swinging on the swings, digging in the dirt and then later in the afternoon, some more quiet time on the Michel's deck. This time just me and grandson Isaiah reading stories and spotting two cardinals. I don't feel stuck. I have lots of memories to hold on to but I know I am still in the process of making new ones. That's good.