Luke's Birthday

This past week we received some "Luke Mail" from Toys R Us, inviting us to join Luke in their birthday club, and giving helpful tips on planning his first birthday party. Contrary to what you may think, Will and I are always wistfully glad to receive mail relating to Luke because in some way it shows us that Luke was in fact here. This particular piece of mail peaked my curiosity because I have been wondering what it would have been like to plan Luke's first birthday. Picking a theme, deciding what type of cake to make him, sending out invitations and even figuring out how to fit all of our friends and family in our house. This past week has been difficult to say the least. I have been trying to find a meaningful way to celebrate Luke's birthday while at the same time hoping to just get through it.

After talking to Will and with many tears and deliberation, here is what we have planned for our little guy's first birthday this Thursday, February 19th. We invite all of our friends and family who are able to stop by and visit Luke at the cemetery and leave a special note for him on a card that Will and I will be leaving at his grave in a ziplock bag with a pen to keep it from getting wet. You can leave your own card too if you wish. If you can't make it to the cemetery, you are welcome to post a note on this blog.

If you haven't been to the cemetery before, you can find directions at http://www.mtelliott.com/resurrection.html. Or you can follow Will's directions: upon entering the cemetery, take the tree lined entrance road until it ends. Turn right. Take this road until it ends and turn left. Go past one block. The second block on the left is where Luke is at. Go halfway up that block on the lefthand side and about five to six rows back. He is in section 23, plot 731. We have a smaller pine needle grave blanket with a small orange truck tucked into a blue snowflake bow covering Luke's grave. The cemetery is open from 7 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. daily. If you need more specifics on where Luke's plot is, you can ask at the office whose hours are from 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Saturday. We will have the card there through the end of the weekend (Sunday, February 22nd). Because the cemetery doesn't like any artificial decorations, the ziplock with the card will be tucked into the grave blanket just below Luke's headstone.

We will also have a bag of tootsie rolls in honor of Luke tucked into the grave blanket as well. Please help yourself - you may need to let it thaw a bit before you eat it. As some of you know, this 'garbage' candy is something I craved all throughout my pregnancy with Luke. Although I never cared for tootsie rolls myself, Luke obviously liked them. Maybe they taste different filtered through an umbilical cord. We can hope! I know Luke will be smiling down on us as we try not to loose our fillings on this old fashioned treat.

If there is enough snow, feel free to leave a snowman or a snow angel in memory of Luke. Will and I will be spending the day quietly at home with each other, surrounding ourselves with pictures of Luke, yellow tulips (they remind us of Luke) and probably eating a grilled cheese sandwich with a Clausen pickle for lunch since this was also something I craved while pregnant with Luke. Please say a prayer that we get through the day.

Thank you for all of your support over the last year. Will and I have truly discovered the type of caring and compassionate friends and family that we are blessed to have. We couldn't have journeyed through this past year without you.

Love,
Liz, Will & Lucy, with Luke forever in our hearts

Too bad Luke's buddy Mr. Snowman melted last week!