Most Important Things
Are Simple
It’s my hope that you can continually find reasons to keep talking and sharing memories of your loved one. Remember you are the keeper of the footprint of their life. Record each picture, touch each random moment, keep an inventory of their life. Look at photos, write about them, say their name, hold it close. Always be open to stories and memories that others share with you. Laugh and love with those who knew their smile and the way their eyes twinkled with delight.
There is nothing I love more than hearing a story, whether it’s one I haven’t heard about Morgan or Kirk or one that I have heard hundreds of times. It never gets old.
Make choices in your life that honor your child. Make them proud of your decisions, as you choose to live in a way that helps others and honors their memory. Take an emotional risk. Take chances and say what you feel, hold back nothing, dance like no one is watching. Listen to music your loved one enjoys. Sing out at the top of your lungs.
We have established Morgan’s Memorial Scholarship Foundation, and we host a Golf Classic each year to help students fund their college education. But you don’t have to plan grandiose gestures to honor your child. I also honor Morgan in simple ways, like how I wear pink because she loved that color. By wearing pink, I have a feel-good connection to her.
Did your child love fishing? Hiking? Music? Or game night? Maybe they enjoyed going to concerts, sporting events, or theater productions. Whatever makes them happy, I encourage you to engage in those activities and find deep connection again with your loved one.
Every time I pull my grandmother’s beautiful crystal glass salad dish out to use, it brings a smile to my face with warm memories of eating Sunday lunches at her house with her fabulous fruit salad.
Recreating my mother’s recipes is comforting and brings me closer to her. Nothing reminds me of growing up at home more than my mother’s creamed eggs on toast for breakfast. It was such a treat.
Wearing my straw hats in the summer and my felt hats in the winter remind me of how my father wore his broad-brimmed Stetsen cowboy hat all the time.
My sweet aunt Peggy made me a stained-glass butterfly that hangs in my office window. Seeing the light shining brightly through the glass reminds me of her funny laugh and makes me smile.
The pink clothes, dishes, recipes, and all the hats are little reminders of the love I had for each one of these special people in my life. All these simple moments help create an environment of thankfulness for our loved ones, reminding us how fortunate we were to know them and giving us a chance to keep their memory alive with us each day.
I encourage you to gather strength from the simplest memories.
It will bring joy to your journey.
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back
and realize they were the big things.”
Robert Brault
You are so right, Pam. Each of these bring us comfort in fond memories. Lovely post.
Lovely post, Pam. Like you, I have so many touchstones back to my child. And they really do bring me joy, because it’s where I feel he is closest to me now, bonded to me forever. Thank you for sharing your own personal touchstones back to Morgan with us 🙏❤️