anyway, braden would have been three months old on this day had he survived. happy 3-month birthday braden! i still wish you were here with karen and i. unfortunately, i have to keep telling myself that it was not meant to be... for some reason that i will probably never ever come to know. so instead of experiencing the joys of fatherhood during the past three months, i get to experience the joys of self-doubt and have thoughts about the dreams that will never happen for my son. it sounds like an even trade-off... i guess.
the good news, however, is that braden's flat marker was finally installed... just in time for his three month birthday. i know a flat marker is not exactly the most thrilling item to get excited over.
(pictured below is the flat marker for braden.)
i am quite pleased with the flat marker (and with quincy memorials in general). both karen and i were actually surprised on the size of the marker as it is noticeably larger than the other surrounding flat markers at the cemetery. i'm sure there is some irony there because braden was a tiny little guy who weighed the same amount as a stick of butter. so to have a flat marker that is larger than the other markers at the cemetery is quite interesting.
karen loves the winnie the pooh engraving. she was very happy when she knew quincy memorials could engrave winnie the pooh on the flat marker. in fact, she even thought about having a family disney theme for our flat markers. (i'll let whoever deal with that when i pass away.)
anyway, we both thought that winnie the pooh was appropriate for braden. in addition to being karen's favorite disney character, winnie the pooh was going to be the theme for braden's room. obviously, we never finished braden's room, but it would have been a nice theme for him had he survived.
when karen and i saw the image of winnie the pooh holding the three balloons from the books and books of images we could have quincy memorials engrave from, we immediately knew that the pooh image was what we wanted on braden's marker. karen liked how the three balloons could represent the three of us: braden, karen and i. i also liked the symbolism of pooh flying up into the clouds. (i believe the scene that features winnie the pooh with the three balloons has him float away into the sky.)
as for the "little b" on the marker, that was a result of something that started while at the neonatal intensive care unit. if you could have seen braden when he was alive, you would have seen how tiny he was. (again, he weighed the same as a stick of butter.) in fact, braden's entire arm could fit through my wedding ring... which we have pictures of. needless to say, i just started referring to braden as "little b" and it sort of stuck. he was so gosh darn cute.
anyway, happy three month birthday braden! i hope you like the flat marker. please remember that daddy loves you.
1 comment:
Happy three month birthday Braden - Mike, I think you two picked the perfect image for your family.
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