I promised you a balloon story.
At the end of my last blog I actually promised you two balloon stories. I’m afraid there is only one for now.
For my new readers – let me bring you up to date. Balloons have been part of significant events in the life of our Amanda. Again, for those who don’t know, Amanda passed away on October 12th, 2014. In the book, “Amanda, Perfectly Made” that I wrote about her life, there is a balloon floating away in the sky on the cover that relates to a touching situation that happened in her life. (Read the book if you want to know – I’m not giving it away here!) We also did a balloon ascension at Amanda’s memorial service where fifty balloons were released into the sky with notes attached for the lucky person who may catch one of the stray balloons.
This balloon story happened about two months after Amanda’s death.
Ted and I had planned a week-end getaway in Chicago way back in September for us and our daughters and their spouses. It would include the two of us, Kristen & Ric, Jillian & Andy, and of course Amanda. Now Amanda never liked change or being away from her home and routines – but we were going to make her go with us. We were going to go out to eat at all kinds of great restaurants (she loved going out to eat) and we had plenty of indoor museum visits planned that she should enjoy. We wanted this Chicago trip to be a fun family event. Ted and I were determined to make it an enjoyable and memorable one.
Amanda passed away in October.
We decided to still take the December Chicago trip with the rest of the family.
We stayed in Chicago at one of the hotels that offer free breakfast. Our first morning in Chicago, Ted and I were up at our usual early hour and ventured down to breakfast. We were the only ones there besides the gal who was the breakfast hostess. Sitting at the small square table in the early morning, sipping coffee, Ted and I were both a bit heavy hearted knowing that Amanda was supposed to be there with us. We sat quietly while staring at our steaming coffee cups. From the corner of my eye, I saw something.
I looked up … and for a moment was quite dumbfounded.
The breakfast nook we were sitting at doubled at nights as a bar. We had a cozy dropped ceiling above us but the far end of the room opened up to a very high ceiling above the bar area.
Drifting down from the high dark corners of the far end of the room was …
A BALLOON!
Of all things!
I jumped up and ran to it, grabbing it by the ribbon that was attached. I practically skipped back over to Ted and exclaimed, “Look! Amanda IS HERE with us!”
(Insert here a picture of Ted sobbing.)
It was just so uncanny and unexpected … and yet so NOT random.
Why did that happen? How did it happen? What the … ?
I don’t know.
But I do know, in my heart, that Amanda was there with us and wanted us to know. She picked a way to communicate that to us – a balloon.
You can believe it or not.
The puzzled breakfast hostess came over to us when she saw us both crying. We told her our story. She was so sweet. She tied the balloon to the breakfast billboard sign and Amanda got to see all the people who came and went that day. She would have loved that.
And that’s my balloon story.
Just Laurel
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Love the balloon story! Thank you.
What a gift you have in writing!
Thank you Connie.
Oh I truly believe she was there! Dawn drove a black Ford Flex. Every time I think about her while I’m driving a black Flex appears. I pull into a parking lot and find a spot next to a black Flex. Amanda is with you and Ted always just as Dawn is with me. I don’t tell people the story I’m about to tell you because I believe they think I’m nuts, but……..about a couple of months aft r Dawn passed away, something very strange happened. My house is completely open from the kitchen to the dining room to the family room. I was thinking about Dawn when I went to bed and wondering if she was alright. I got up in the morning and laying on the dining room floor were a pair of women’s Oakley sunglasses. They weren’t mine, and they weren’t there the night before because I would have stepped on them. The next morning there were two more pairs of women’s Oakley sunglasses on the dining room floor. They weren’t mine. Dawn owned an optical practice. I called her office manager who was Dawns best friend to tell her what happened. She said that she as the office manager is the one who meets its all the frame salespeople, except she doesn’t meet with the Oakley rep. Dawn’s favorite sunglasses were Oakleys so she would meet with the rep. I believe that it was a sign from Dawn. Keep on thinking about Amanda, she will always. E with you.
Laurel and Judy, I believe. My Mom was called home last year. For as long as I can remember, on Christmas Eve, our family would celebrate with Oplatky, a large communion wafer. We would get them from church but when they were no longer available there, my Mom would be sure she would get them, a Polish neighbor would get them, until she passed away a few months before. I have some old ones (stale) so I wasn’t thinking about it. Ron and I went to Bronners shortly before Christmas, and because parking was nightmare he dropped me off. I walked around for awhile, then decided to stay in one place so Ron could find me. As I was standing there I turn my head and right at eye level about 10 inches from my face was a rack of Oplatky. I knew that it was Mom letting me know she was still doing her job and we would carry on the tradition.
Thanks for sharing Marsha! I love hearing other people’s stories 🙂
(And now I’m going to have to check out those Oplatky)