The Blue Eyed Bunch

At the cemetery where Isaac is buried they do a nice Memorial day program. It is staged around a pond. They go to a lot of work and have bag pipers, singers, and poems read. It is a nice Sabbath evening remembering those who died for our country and our own loved ones. Well, it is supposed to be a nice evening. Ours went more like this, "Put the stick down, don’t hit him!" "Stay here." "Stay by me, don’t go to close to the water." "Shhh, be quiet. Don’t yell." "Don’t tease that dog. Be nice to the dog. Don’t hurt the dog. You’re scaring the dog. Stop throwing rocks at the dog!" (And my kids wonder why I won’t let them have a pet of their own.) "Where’s Reagan? WHERE’S REAGAN?!!!"

I grabbed our blankets and threw them over my shoulder. I picked up Rylan and told Aubryn to come. Brad was peacefully enjoying the program like it was intended. So I left him and knew he would benefit from listening. Then I set out to find Reagan before the hundreds of people went to their cars and started driving. I circled around the pond and could not find him. I went back around the other way to see if he went back to the lady with the dog. He was not there and I kept walking. Looking. Stomach aching. I looked across the canal and saw him over in the graves. I walked over to the bridge and back to where he was. He was sitting by Isaac’s grave. How he found it, I do not know. Some ladies standing at a grave near by said they heard him walking around saying, "I need to find Isaac. Where is Isaac?"

I was relieved. I was touched that he was sitting by his brother’s grave. I set a blanket on the grass and sat down by Reagan. He asked me, "Mom, Is this Heaven?"

"No." I said.

He said, "Oh. I fought it was."

(That hour and a half was NOT heaven at all! But that moment was.)