Mama's beautiful service.

Thursday May 17, 2012 which was exactly a week to the day I found my mom was the day we held her service.  My mom always said she wanted to be cremated and her ashes spread on the beach.  She left a couple notes and in one of her notes she reminded me of her wishes.  So I did just that.  Her body was cremated and I thought Mickler's Beach here in Jacksonville would be the perfect place to honor her.  After all, she spent a lot of her last days there.  My mom loved the beach, loved the sun, and loved having a tan.  She was easy to please.  I would often join her on Sunday afternoons and we would sit on the beach and eat sesame sticks.  She LOVED those things.  I decided to hold the service around 10a.m.  Some of my family came to town on the Tuesday before and i'm telling you it rained for days and days it seemed like before the day of the  service.  Woke up on Thursday morning and it was super cloudy out.  I was so sad because I wanted the sun to be out because I knew that's what my mom would have wanted and the rain is just down right depressing especially during this time.  We headed to the beach on Thursday morning.  I'm telling you the moment we arrived, the skies opened up.  There was not a cloud in the sky, the sun was shining so bright, and the weather was warm and beautiful.  We set up two tables, both with pictures, a photo-book, a little flower arrangement, and some roses.  We stood around the table, cried, talked about memories, talked about the stories behind the pictures  I had chosen, and cried some more.  The water was calm and the sky was so blue. The weather turned out to be quite beautiful.  We didn't have the ashes back yet but we went ahead with the service without them.  After we had been at the beach an hour or so, the sky started to get dark again.  Some one made a joke that that was a sign we needed to leave.  Why?  Because my mom hated and I mean HATED for her hair to get wet.  She was one of those people who would get ready to go lay out by the pool or the ocean.  That was just how she was.  She was always dressed and ready with her hair perfect no matter where we went.  She was very much always dressed to the nines.  The skies started to get darker so we started to pack up before the rain came back.  Out of nowhere a lady walking up the beach comes up to us and hands my step-dad a sea-shell that she had just found a couple feet from where we held the memorial.  I'm telling you this was the most beautiful shell I have ever seen.  It is much bigger than it looks..it is about 6 inches long and maybe 5 or so inches tall.  It is very big.  Every single time we ever went to the beach my mom always wanted to find a whole sand-dollar.  Out of all the times we have ever been to the beach, we have only found pieces but never a whole one.  My step-dad gave me the sea shell.  I know without a shadow of a doubt my mom was smiling down and letting us know she was there.  Not a moment sooner, it started to sprinkle.  We all knew in that moment that it was time to get out of there fast because our hair could not get wet.  It couldn't have been a more beautiful service.  I miss my mom so much everyday.  I hope that she is finally at peace and at peace where she loved to be most in the world, at the beach.

Mom, I love you so much.  

Love, 

Coconut.