This weekend I made the trip to Winter Haven Florida to remember my best friend. What a memorial it was!!!!! There were a lot of laughs and lots of tears, but the one thing that was the most prevalent was love and music.
How lucky each of us were that were to be loved by one person so much. And how lucky are each of us to have a part of that love within us. My hope is that we all learn from that love and use it well. How lucky for us too that we have all been reminded of that love in these difficult days.
I said a few months ago that Charlie would go from being my George Bailey to being my Clarence. I don't know how many of us actually believe in angels, an afterlife in Heaven, etc. I always have, but my belief system has been strongly reinforced after the last few days.
It started well before I left Dallas for Texas, but on the plane, I was having a moment and my eyes began to well with tears. My ITunes changed songs to "I'm Coming Out" by Diana Ross. I laughed out loud remembering the last conversation Charlie and I had - when he was only awake about an hour a day - and the never ending joke that we have shared for the past 20 years. I was so close to Heaven in that plane and I know that Charlie put that song on to let me know that he was okay and that he is still with me in spirit.
As the weekend went on, others shared stories about a song they heard that reminded them of Charlie, only to change the song to hear another one. Each one started with tears and ended with laughter. That's what Charlie would have wanted. He would have wanted us to laugh, and so we did (usually while crying at the same time).
At the end of his tree planting service, a few of us stood in front of the magnolia tree planted in Charlie's honor and took a picture. How surprising to see that he showed up there too - to let us all know that he's still here!
I love you my friend and I miss you more than you will ever know.
