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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