Merry Christmas, my son

 

Incorporating Shane's memory into the office for Christmas.

DISCLAIMER:

Have you seen all the photos in the news about grieving parents incorporating their children's memories into photos? I've become obsessed with them. I think they are beautiful. What do you all think?...

I recently moved and I've been looking at photos of Shane that i haven't looked at in years. It's been emotionally draining. Tonight I just felt pulled to do this photo. I have 10000 other things to do before Christmas but I couldn't shake this so I gave in and did it.

I don't have a little family (no husband or other kids - going through a divorce) so what I do have for a family and where my son's memory is remembered the most is at CHERUBS. This is our office hallway. The tree is decorated with my personal ornaments, including Shane's. This is where his spirit lives on for me. This photo is a way to include him in my current life and raise awareness. It is symbolic. It's not the best graphic quality... I have never done this before.

I have a very dear friend helping with a project similar to this (his will be much better than mine! He's an amazing photographer) and I've spent months talking to him about a way to do this for all our grieving parents. We are working on ideas. How many of you would be interested?

So here it is. Little afraid to post this as there are 3000+ eyes on this profile. I don't mean to offend anyone. Please don't offend me either. I won't deal with negative comments or judgmental comments. I will freely use the unfriend button.

If you're not familiar with CDH and Shane's story, you can go to CHERUBS site at http://www.cherubs.org/ or Shane's site at http://www.shane-torrence.com/

Happy 22nd Birthday, Shane

So much has happened since my last post in September.  So many good things.  Awards, events and now we are close to raising $1 Million for CDH.   All good stuff.

We are working hard and staying busy but days like today are still hard.

For all of 2015, we are writing open letters to Nicholas Sparks to raise CDH Awareness.   I got the opportunity to meet him, he knows about the letters and hopefully will decide to help us.  Crazy idea?  Of course.  That's what we're best at!  Someone has to help these kids.

This is my letter to Mr. Sparks for today.  It's about Shane's 22nd Birthday.

Happy Birthday, sweetheart.  Mommy loves and misses you always.