Celebration of My Mother's Life

We have three days we celebrate in honor of my mom during the month of May.  May 3rd (day she went to be with our Lord), May 12th (Mother's Day) and May 17th (my mom's birthday).  My mom passed in 2010, she would have turned 64 this year. Since my mom passed I wanted to do something special for her each year so I decided that in May I would set balloons free along the Susquehanna River in her memory.  I normally do this by myself, but this year Gracie joined me.  A little story about the balloons...Grace and I went to the store and I let her pick out three balloons (one for mom's birthday, one for Mother's Day and one for the anniversary of her passing).  Gracie picked one that said Happy Birthday and had a big cupcake on it (for her bday), the other balloon was of a bouquet of flowers (for Mother's Day) and the last ballon Gracie picked out in honor of my mom's passing was of "Elmo" - yes...you heard me right...Elmo from Sesame Street. I looked and stared at the balloon for a minute and thought "no" and thein it dawned on me...OMG my mother LOVED ELMO - she even had a tickle me Elmo doll (you had to know my mom to understand LOL). I took that as a sign that my mom was with us.  I told the story of Elmo to Gracie and how Grandma would love to have the balloon set free in her memory.  Below are some pics of our trip to the Harvey Taylor Bridge where we said a few prayers in honor of my mother and we set the balloons free along the river.  I love and miss my mom tremendously, but it saddens me even more that my children will never know her.  Georgie will, but Jake and Gracie have little, if any, memory of my mother because they were so young.  Last night I was sad and missing my mom and Gracie goes "mommy...your mother is always with you" - That little girl just knows how to make everything all better sometimes!