I love this photo of Henry at the airport during one of his trips to Europe with his grandparents.
Monthly Archives: July 2010
Three year old birthday girl
Happy birthday today to my beautiful C. I can’t believe it’s been three years already. Your birth was one of the most grueling experiences of my life, but also one of the most satisfying.
I am so proud of what a brilliant, bookish, articulate, quirky, creative, loving and expansively sweet person you are. You are a delight, and have brought so much joy to our entire family. I know that your third year has not been an easy one. You have already experienced change and loss that many adults have not yet faced.
But the next year will be gentler for you…for all of us. I promise.
And your big brother Henry loved you very, very much. Never, ever doubt that…or forget it.
“February” by Lolly Quinones
Month of great men
And for us, a family month
Of birthdays, both grandfathers
And one son
In California, it’s
The month of flowering fruit –
Glory of white-blossomed pears,
The dazzling peach in pinks and reds,
Pale Oriental plum
Now suddenly,
A month of death,
Trees bloom
But not our second-born son
Stopped, his turning
Growth in time
Forever now eighteen,
Forever muscled,
Mustached, moving
In our remembered minds
Forever budding, burgeoning
His art, his thought, his life
Never to unfold in flower
Or reach the summertime of fruit
Our month of birthdays
Sombered and subdued;
He died
And fruit trees all over town
Burst into spring
Henry in the Willamette Valley
I love these beautiful shots for Henry taken by his Aunt Julie and Uncle James during their recent trip to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. I think Henry would have loved the Pacific Northwest. He never had the chance to visit.
James was Henry’s Godfather.
I love you James, Julie, G, J, W and L
Henry in Mexico
Check out these absolutely gorgeous photos from a wonderful reader, JoElla, a Peace Corps volunteer who has had painful personal experience losing someone she loved very much to substance abuse.
Here’s what she wrote about the photos:
I work on a dormant volcano two hours south of Guadalajara. It’s a beautiful location and after reading your blogs- I thought that I would make you a Henry photo. The weather up there is always shifting as it is about 14,000 feet in elevation. I have attached 3 pictures. The first one (5933) has the actual volcano in the background. The second (5934) is overlooking what would be a valley far below however in this photo- its just clouds. I love being above the clouds- its not something you see everyday. The third one (5936) is another view later that day as the clouds are beginning to break. The area really is beautiful and I wish I had more impressive photos to share with you…I take great pride in having quality photos…but I also believe that things are as they are for a reason- so I stuck with the original photos.
She also included the lyrics to this Jack Johnson song. (Henry was a Jack Johnson fan, and his little sister J loves JJ too.)
“If only I could”-Jack Johnson
A brand new baby was born yesterday
Just in time
Papa cried, baby cried
Said your tears are like mine
I heard some words
From a friend on the phone
That didn’t sound so good
The doctor gave him two weeks to live
I’d give him more if I could
You know that I would now
If only I could
You know that I would now
If only I could
Down the middle drops one more
Grain of sand
They say that
New life makes losing life easier to understand
Words are kind
They help ease the mind
Of this, my old friend
And though you gotta go
We’ll keep a piece of your soul
One goes out, one comes in
You know that I would now
If only I could
You know that I would now
If only I could.
Thank you so very much JoElla. These are really stunning and I will treasure them always.
Lacrosse and Lupi’s in Chattanooga
Today Jon, J, G and I drive down to Chattanooga to watch E and his cousin J play in a middle school lacrosse tournament at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (G’s first LAX game!). C stayed in Knoxville and played with cousin NC, and also spent much of the day with Jon’s parents. J and E’s dad drove down to Chattanooga too, so we all watched E play, and we went out to lunch together at a favorite pizza spot, Lupi’s in downtown Chattanooga, just a block away from the Tennessee Aquarium.
Two of my three girls – J and Baby G with me at Lupi’s.
E on the field, wearing mouthgard (that’s why his teeth look blue)
Baby G on my shoulder at the restaurant, looking like a cross between Mr. Magoo and an angry raisin.
J and her dad at Lupi’s
Baby G meets her great grandmother
Last weekend in Bell Buckle, G met her great grandmother, Nancy McLean Orr Anderson for the first time. My grandmother has had a true adventure of a life, but she is now totally bedridden and very much ready to die. She is also completely and totally heartbroken about Henry. The two of them adored one another. She and my grandfather (who died in 2006) played a very important role in Henry’s life from the day he was born.
She told me when we visited on Sunday that she is now more determined than ever to wrap things up here on earth so that she can go take care of her two great-grandchildren who have preceded her to heaven, Ward and Henry.
She was thrilled to meet G, who is almost certainly going to be her last great-grandchild.
Henry was her first and G is her last.
Henry was my first and G is my last.
Henry at the South Pole
Wow. This photo from a reader, Meteorologist Sue O’Reilly is SO AMAZING. Henry would have absolutely loved this. Here’s what Sue wrote about the photo she took for Henry:
I’m spending the winter at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. Our station has been in darkness for over three months and the sun will be coming back in a few weeks. Yesterday I wrote Henry’s name on my weather balloon. We don’t recover them; they fly miles up and far away before floating back to earth and being slowly buried by the drifting snow. Henry’s balloon is somewhere on the continent and will probably never be seen by human eyes again. Though we are still in full darkness, the moon was nearly full and the stars were bright, and later that day we had small flickering green and white auroras all across the sky. I think Henry’s balloon had a good view for everything.
THANK YOU SUE!!!!!
