this morning we laid my beloved to rest for the final time…

lovely place by the creek to rest…

with family we walked down to a spot by the creek just across from our home of over forty years, and deposited his ashes to move out to the two rivers it joins, and then Lake Winnipeg…

I was amazed at how difficult this was… we have been working toward this event since last August when we had the discussion that Dad needed to have a place…

a few of his ashes had been placed into necklaces… a date was chosen, flights were booked… a brick from around the pond was engraved… the spot for the scattering was decided… the house and yard were cleaned and tidied for the event…

the plan had been to have a bonfire in the garden last night, and over wieners, baked potatoes and s’mores, share some of our memories of dad/grandpa… unfortunately the weather was uncooperative and we ended up crowded around in the living room looking through old photo albums… the boys were quite surprised at the photos and how different grandpa looked as a younger man, lol…

all the kids slept over and we got up early, met with the rest of the group and walked to the chosen spot… my grandson and I had decided not to have any readings, just send grandpa on his way… I shared how we had made our decisions about what we would do… told the story about how we were going to make a paper box for his remains and then discovered yesterday it wouldn’t dissolve, the last minute conversations with various professionals to decide on plan B…

scattering complete, now on to breakfast…

George loved the creek, and had spent many hours there with our girls and then the grandkids, finding frogs and checking out critters, so it was a fitting place for him…

once his ashes were scattered in the creek, everyone dropped a daisy or two into the stream to travel with him… then we walked over to the “A” for breakfast, which used to be one of our weekend activities, particularly over the last three or four years… nearly everyone had the special – George’s favourite – and we had a great visit with one another…

we all had breakfast, sort of together…

home for a last few minutes and then folks moved on to the rest of their day… although we did have a few dad memories before they all left…

gathered tonight for a celebratory dinner…

celebratory dinner, steak and lobster with a “Dad” salad…

feeling a bit scattered myself… many memories came flooding back about the day of his memorial service, at which I was going through some serious health issues and had blocked out much of the events that took place…

the final step has been taken… my beloved…

the first poppies of the year, today…