So moved…

Thank you for all of your kind and enthusiastic comments on my recent posts! 🙂 Your continued support and encouragement mean so much to me. This is still all very surreal for us. It is hard for me to believe that I am almost 17 weeks pregnant with a baby girl that appears to be healthy.

I am working on a few posts that will follow in the near future, one about telling Sean last Friday that he is going to be a big brother again and another (which I will finish hopefully by tomorrow) in honor of my 2nd Blogoversary/Participating in “Sock it to Me.” In the meantime, our news is now “public” and for those who may have been respecting our wishes and holding back on sharing about our baby with family and/or friends. You are welcome to tell whomever you want that we are expecting a baby girl (God willing) in September and we certainly would appreciate having even more people praying with us that our new daughter continues to grow, develop on track and will be born healthy later this year.

Anyway, this is just a quick post to share about something I witnessed today that I was so moved by. Sean and I went to the cemetery this afternoon to put old and new decorations up at Molly’s grave. The cemetery requests that between March 15 – 31 that we clear all decorations for their “spring cleaning.” We would have returned sooner, but our Chicago weather has been typical for April with a mix of showers (rain and even some snow). So I was waiting for the snow to melt.

We got there today, a beautiful and sunny one in the 60s, and there were many other cemetery families visiting and decorating their loved one’s graves as well. I forgot my camera, but will be sure to bring it next time, as I really like how Sean and I decorated Molly’s grave today. I had picked out some special things in honor of her birthday next Friday and decided to go ahead and put them around her grave today. Sean was really into helping me decide where to put things, which was sweet.

When we were done decorating we talked with Molly a bit in Heaven, as we often do. Sean told her about their new baby sister as he was walking back to our car, which was cute. I asked if he wanted to tell her closer to her grave and Sean reminded me that he can talk to Molly in Heaven anywhere, not just at her grave. As we drove away from Molly’s grave, towards Bob’s paternal grandparents’ graves (which I like to visit/check on when we are there and have the time), I noticed an elderly woman at a near by grave carrying a big fleece blanket.

I was very curious what this woman was going to do with the blanket. It seemed the grave was on the fresher side, as there wasn’t much grass on top of it. As I drove slowly past her, I saw the woman proceed to spread the blanket out next to the grave, then she proceeded to lie down on the blanket, as if she was cuddling up to the person she clearly loves and cares so much about that has died. I imagined it is her husband (though it could have been anyone) that has gone before her and what a deep and true love they must have shared for each other.

I got very choked up as I witnessed all of this and did my best to try to continue a normal conversation with Sean. He was oblivious to what I had just seen and I chose to not tell him about it. I just found it so incredibly moving and wanted to share about my experience here, while it was still fresh in my mind. That woman’s actions broke my heart, but I also found them to be so inspiring. I love that she felt uninhibited enough to lie down next to her loved one’s grave, in effort to try to feel a closeness to that person that she must have felt when he or she was still living here on earth.

On this Holy Thursday people who share my faith tradition (Christian/Catholic) remember Jesus’s last supper before he was crucified and died on the cross. I look forward to going to church tonight in honor and memory of Jesus, Molly, the loved one of the woman I saw today at the cemetery and all those who have gone before us that I believe now are at peace and healed in Heaven. Thank you for reading. Take care and may God continue to bless you and your loved ones during this Easter season.