Getting Ready for a Final Goodbye

The Cemetery

Here I sit, thinking about putting my husband’s ashes in his final resting place next week. Although this elicits all sorts of sad emotions, it also brings me a kind of peaceful feeling knowing that he will be placed in a cemetery where anyone can visit him. Right now he sits on my mantle and has been there since last year. 

I am still in awe that it has been over a year since he has passed. It is surreal to think about how we survived without him. But we did. Not only did we survive, but we thrived in the face of the worst event in our lives. He did not let us wallow and wither but gave us the strength to make him proud. He helped us to reinvent ourselves. By continuing to talk about him and reliving memories that he was a part of made it easier somehow, to move forward.

Now, we will lay him to rest in our little town cemetery. We will grieve all over again for his loss and absence. We will also rejoice in the fact that we are together to share his ever present spirit. The spirit that gets us up in the morning and comforts us as we go to sleep at night. I believe that it will bring us some sort of closure. 

This next week will inevitably be filled with ups and downs. As long as we all stick together and work through it, I know we will be fine. Just fine. As fine as we can in the face of another sad, sad day. It’s time once again to lock arms and forge ahead to the final ceremony.