The Celebration

I awoke to an absolute perfect day in which to put our son to rest through a Celebration of his Life. Surrounded by family, heavily supported by friends but with very little sleep, I wasn't sure I could do it. So I called on the Lord for strength and he answered my prayer.

It was also a beautiful day for a motorcycle ride to Blood Mountain especially, a place where Paul enjoyed to go so much. All the curves inclines and declines were just challenges he saw as another opportunity to experience life. He felt totally free riding with the wind and as he rode his bike, he also quietly rode into the lives of so many other people.

At the Celebration yesterday, my #1 memory will be of his friends surrounding his wife Ryss at the end in a gesture of support and solidarity. To see so many different kinds of people who loved them both made me so proud of the way our son had lived his life. You can cry, you can mourn and you can definitely hurt, but it is comforting to know that every one of his 29 years counted in the thread of so many lives.

I mentioned to one of my friends that I now know what pain God must have felt when he lost his own son. I know what so many have felt when their sons or daughters died whether in combat or in every day life. It is a different feeling from others because a part of you that you helped to create is gone, not coming back. We get so used to watching movies where the hero lives that we forget real life has no playback for death.

This time the hero died, and he will be forever my hero because though I am his Dad and some of me may have rubbed off on him, he was his own great man. Ride on son, I am riding with you in my heart!