“Jesus In The Clouds” – the painting (part II)

 

When I got home, I showed Paul and my sisters.  She did a great job, and it was a million times better than mine.  I was very thankful for what Dorothy did for me.   

Before Lauren and Ashton went to bed, I asked them what they thought about the day.  Lauren said, “Busy…..tired.”  Ashton said, “Fun….romantic.”  We started talking about what they were going to call Claudia because she was their grandmother now.  They called her Miss Claudia before.  Ashton said, “Let’s ring her up and see what she wants to be called.”

On the way back home to Athens, we stopped at Mom’s gravesite.  Paul helped me place the shepherd’s staff in the ground because the ground was very hard.  He had to find a large cement block to hit the staff into the ground. 

I put the chimes on the staff and thought about the sounds the chimes would make as the breeze would blow after I was gone.  I said happy birthday to her.  Before I left, I heard the chimes twice and enjoyed hearing the sounds they made.

I talked to Aunt Julie on the phone a little over a week after the wedding.  She was telling me how much fun she had, and we talked for a while.  As I was talking to her, everything seemed so surreal.  It is hard to believe they are actually married now and living in the same house.  I guess it just finally hit me. 

I called Nana on the phone because she had been sick lately.  I had not spoken to her since the wedding.  We talked about the wedding, Dad, and Claudia.  She told me she did not want me mad at her because she did not go to the wedding.  I told her I wasn’t.  She then said, “I would have broken down.”  I told her it was just going to take time.

Paul told me Dad emailed me some pictures.  I asked him if he would print them out for me.  The pictures were from their honeymoon.  There were a few pictures of them on the cruise, and a few when they were in Mexico.  He also sent me a picture of him carrying Claudia over the threshold at their house.  I scanned my eyes over to a picture I have in my den.  It is a picture of Dad carrying Mom over the threshold of their house after they got married.  It was one of the many pictures Mom gave me when she divided up the pictures.  Tears again started to fill my eyes.  It was another one of those hard moments…there will be many more.