And so John was celebrated....

It's been a bit of a rough week and is apparently taking for me FORever to get the pictures the from this past Sunday posted. For now, I'll say that it was a lovely tribute to John...and that perhaps I should have worried less about having enough hand sanitizer and forks and more about having tissue/Kleenex. Bertie & Sally's presence, though bittersweet, was absolutely perfect. ...And the quilt ("Johnny's Hug") presented by Jill Tucker - was exquisite and purely indescribable in terms of the way it touched us all...most especially Bertie. It was beautiful; heartwrenching...and simply beautiful.


During the celebration, some of the athletes spoke so sweetly about John. Their expressions were genuine and true to those with special needs; there is a different plane there...a realm we aren't privy to and only in certain times (gifted times), do we catch a glimpse and are we allowed a brief holiday to that world where I could swear things often make more sense than they do in the "typical" world. Them sharing their thoughts of John and condolences to Bertie & Sally was one of of those special [brief] holidays.
Once all who wanted to speak had spoken, we then released pink balloons heaven-ward....explaining that they (the balloons) would carry our thoughts & memories to John. Also, included in the athletes' keepsake bags were not-yet-inflated pink balloons... I suggested that the athletes would always be able to keep in touch with John and that if they needed/wanted to send up a pink balloon every now and again...I hope they'd so do. A tad cheesy, but I thought it fitting. The picture below is a collage of the balloon release. I'll post again when all of the pictures are posted!


With love for John ~ Amanda