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Balloons to Heaven
Balloons to Heaven
I was looking at January’s calendar today and realized that it was exactly one month ago today, Feb. 22, that Assew went to work and never came back.
Mak’s great-grandma (Assew’s grandma)was buried today.
And today is (was?)Charlie’s birthday.
This evening Grace and I went and bought two “Happy Birthday” balloons, one for her and one for Makayla. Grace wrote, “Pap, we love you. Happy Birthday. Love, Grace and Makayla” on hers. I wrote “We miss you” per her request on Mak’s.
Then we drove to a church parking lot outside the city and released the balloons. Grace and I watched as the balloons began twirling in circles, the parking lot lights shining off the foil balloons. “They’re dancing to heaven to pap,” she said. And we stood there watching them.
They continued to twirl, higher and higher. The balloons traveled together and just as they were about to disappear in the fog above the hilltop, Grace’s separated and went on its own route in the opposite direction, back toward us.
I silently allowed a couple of tears to fall, afraid that if I allowed myself to start crying that I wouldn’t be able to stop. Grace sniffled, too much the little diva to allow herself to show too much emotion. Mak sang “Happy Birthday,” not understanding what we were doing, but understanding that it was pappy’s birthday. Grace told me that she wanted to do that every year for her pappy’s birthday. “Okay,” I said. No one said anything else. I drove away when the fog finally swallowed Grace’s balloon.
Happy Birthday, Charlie. We miss you.
posted on Feb 22, 2010 4:08 PM ()
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