Every year on this day we buy big balloons and write messages to Grandma and Grandpa Carilli. We tell them about the kids and Jimmy and our lives. We tell them we love and miss them and we send them up in the sky. Below is one of my favorite photos of Jimmy's parents and our balloons as well as two shots of Daddy and his girls getting ready to send them off "to the moon" according to Ella, (which is where she has suddenly decided that Grandma and Grandpa Carilli live. LOL). This year was even more special as Ella helped me write on them (or scribble-lol)
On this day I am reminded of the power of Love and thought I would share a special story. In Christmas 2007 I was shopping for Christmas Cards for Jimmy. I always look for the wordy novel of a card that sums up a whole life's worth of feelings along with a Merry Christmas. Anyhow I was looking and looking and I came across this card. It was so not like me to buy this card but I couldnt believe how moved I was by it. It was so simple and so beautiful and so short. I bought it for Jimmy and he opened it on Christmas morning. He loved this Christmas Card so much that he still displays it on his desk almost 2 years later. This past Christmas when Jimmy gave me my Christmas Card, I opened it to find the same card that I bought him the year before. Not only did he get me the same card (because that was how special he thought the card was also) but he had to go to over 20 stores to find it. He had every female sales clerk in every Walgreen's and Hallmark Crown store Ga-Ga over him when explained that he had to find this one card for his Wife, because she gave it to him the year before and he desperately wanted to give her the same card this year. he finally found it. And so as corny as you all might think this sounds, now we have both cards on display in our house. Here is a photo of our matching cards below:
The cards read quite simply on the front:
"Merry Christmas to My Always"
and on the inside:
"From Your Forever"
I know its been hard the last week for you with you worrying about your sister, your friends sadness in his life, and now the remembering of lost family members. You and Jimmy are very lucky to have one another as I see the love you both have for each other every time you are together! You both inspire me to want more for Gary and I. Your a wonderful and strong woman Jill and I am so lucky to have a friend like you!
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ReplyDeleteThanks Ladies! Sigh... The love of friends is just as powerful. XOXO see you both tomorrow. Kiss the kids for me.
ReplyDeleteI love the balloon idea, that's great you can make a sad memory a special moment with your kids...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the sweet blog comments... I'll show you the clips I use, they are the only ones that stay in her hair.
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ReplyDeleteYour last two posts had me in tears, both of them were so moving. I cant believe how hard it must have been for your husband to lose both parents on the same day but years apart must have been overwhelming, I am sure having you there for him must have been a big comfort to him. The card was so romantic! You not only are a super mom, but also a super wife :)
ReplyDeleteMichelle- thank you that is so sweet! You know it actually makes it a little easier on my husband. He feels a little at peace knowing they both passed the same day and he has only one day a year when he can mourn both instead of two days. But YES it is hard, because he was 28 when they were both gone. They didnt live long enough to see us get married or buy this house or start a family and that is filling him with regret. He also feels like a failure for not being able to give his children another set of Grandparents. (even though he knows he had no control over it). His mother passing is what brought him and I together and his father passing is what brought us to Arizona so I just feel so incredibly overwhelmed at how much they have influenced both our lives without being here. We would be nowhere, not together and nothing if it weren't for them. So we try to mirror our relationship after theirs. In fact the diamonds on her finger in that photo on my blog are now on my finger in my own wedding band that I proudly wear. Sigh...
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