Day of Hope #76
Saturday April 13 – Day of Hope #76
Goal: Celebrate a detour of marriage
Quote: “To the world, you may be one person, but to one person you are the world”. – Bill Wilson
On my calendar I had planned to be in the mountains at a McCall, Idaho resort. A slight detour came my way with something I believed was more important. My wonderful niece, the daughter of my brother who passed away in 2004, decided that she wanted to have her wedding on April 13th. She was extremely sweet, as she called me when booking her wedding, knowing it was my Day of Hope. I said yes.
Our family drove down to Utah on the 12th. We left around 7:00 AM. It was still cold and 34° with lots of rain forecasted. It is like the saying, “April showers bring May flowers”. We hit a patch of black ice, and I thought for sure we were going to roll the vehicle. My two kids and granddaughter were with me. I kept pumping the brakes slowly and we were almost sideways. At one point I closed my eyes for a split second, looked up, and asked my brother in heaven to help. The car stopped somehow. It was scary. I have no doubt my brother had reached out of heaven and stopped the car. No accidents that day for us. His daughter was getting married, and we were not going to miss it.
On the thirteenth we headed to the Event Center to get everything ready. We then went to pick up my dad, who was going to walk his granddaughter down the aisle in his son’s place. He also danced with her for the father-daughter dance in her dad’s honor. They did the sweetest thing for my brother’s memory and had an empty chair up front for him with a sign that said, “We know you would be here today if heaven was not so far away, Dad, August 2024.” There were several white roses on the chair as well.
It was so sweet to see my dad, her grandfather, sit next to his son in spirit and be there for my niece. My niece looked so beautiful, and everyone had a wonderful time. We stayed late to clean up for them, then to my sisters for some relaxation. It was wonderful for me to share my special Day of Hope with them on their special day of marriage.
My lesson of hope: Even though some of our loved ones are in heaven. They are with us in spirit. All we must do is believe.
