Happy Birthday Mom

For my mom's first birthday away from us, my sister suggested we go to her hometown and show her husband around. He had never been to Cincinnati. I just wish she could have shown him herself. Most of the tour was "just turn down that one street" and "something special happened in that house but I can't remember." That may sound unsettling to you, but it just assured me that Mom was with us. Her sense of direction was terrible. If you only knew how many times she got lost.....on the wrong side of Nashville with Katie, Charlotte and my mother-in-law Sharon, or when we took my cousins to the Cincinnati Zoo for Halloween and couldn't get off of Vine Street, or the time I was around 10 and I had to guide her off of New Circle Road. She had no problem asking for directions. But she was never allowed to go into a gas station by herself, less we get a pencilled map on the back of crumbled receipt/lotto ticket. Only to be followed by a "where to?" Then silence and "ummm..." Thanks Mom, we got it. Praise The Lord for GPS!

We began with a drive through Northern Kentucky then a walk on the Newport Levee. My daughter had never been to an aquarium so we ventured in. Then pizza with our family, fellowship, and on outside to release lanterns. I have to be honest. I never liked the idea of the lantern or balloon release. I just thought it seemed juvenile. My mom didn't not like flowers or balloons or anything she couldn't keep. Why should we honor her with something I'm not sure she even liked?
But something happened that night that made me a believer in the sentiment. It was crisp, cool evening. We all wrapped up in blankets, hoodies, you name it. We grabbed our fragile lanterns and began. My sister held hers out so my cousin could light it. As it heated and eventually left her hands, we watched it float higher and higher. It was truly magical. The moon was full and beautifully bright and the clouds ceased to move. Everything stood still. We lit our remaining 3, one by one. Tears fell. We grew silent. And for the first time I felt like I knew where Mom was. Not just spiritually, but physically, I finding myself looking for her among the clouds, in sun rays. I know that the lanterns found her.