Jason is Smiling....

Karen and I left Birmingham Thursday June 16th, 7:00am that morning and drove to Hickory, NC to be with Karen's mom and dad and family now one year since Jason Chrisawn passed away.

Karen said mother's day really brought it home to her now Jason has been gone a year. She said "He has never stayed away or not called this long a time, and it hurts". I loved Jason the 15 years I knew him and soon he was my 3rd son. It is funny how this happens over time but love knows no boundaries and he got under my skin and into my heart like any kid or young adult that loves you can do...and do it very good.

Jason was a unique person, someone who did not fit into anyone's mold of how a young man should be? He was his own man. He made his life, his education, his work, his thing. We watched him mature into someone who could do things most of us could not do. He could mend or fix anything. He was not afraid to build anything or take on any task that you or I might shy away from. I admired that in him and watched in awe sometimes of things he could build.

God and Jason decided one day in June a year ago, it was time to go back home. We mourned then and celebrated his life. But now a year later, we want to find more closure on losing someone we all love so.

Saturday we all gathered in the garden next to the Northminster Presbyterian Church. James Barnhardt performed a short service for Jason and we placed Jason's last ashes below the boughs of a river birch tree. It is a craggy looking tree, with rough bark that peels off constantly like sheets of brown paper. That tree was one Jason would love.

Karen placed flowers below the tree marking the place where Jason's ashes settled. The Clarks have a plaque ordered for the memory wall that joins this garden so we have a place to go to remember Jason. When everything is in bloom, Jason is there smiling. When the leaves fall and the ground is cold and wet with our's and God's tears of rain, Jason is there.

We had a weekend surrounded by family that loves us and we love them in return. We are all hurting but like a scar from a bad fall, the scar is there but it does not hurt now like it did when it happen. Life is like that, and we have the losses, the scars, the memories but that is life. I take life over anything else less and give us the love of family and children, even though it hurts. The love and love of God over powers the hurt everytime.

We drove by Old Fort, NC where Jason passed away and Karen placed some flowers there, where Jason passed away. Jason loved his Scottish highland music and bagpipes and I had "Amazing Grace" on a CD and we played it before leaving, our way of telling Jason again we love him, are thinking about him and he was listening and smiling!

Thank you everyone for your support in helping us getting through this last week. Karen and I had to turn things loose here and put this memorial in front of everything. Jack and Peggy and Rebecca took care of mom. Lynda and Mathew took care of our little girl Gracie. Prayers and love held us up and we thank HIM for sharing Jason with us the time we had him.

Jason is smiling!