Dinner on the Wharf
15 04 11 22:27 Filed in: Grief Notes | My Life
Sometime next week I won’t be having dinner on the wharf.
For the last few years it has been a tradition. Father and son celebrated their birthdays together with dinner on the wharf in Santa Cruz. It was a good tradition that involved a spring trip to Mount Hermon for me and a few happy days off for Matt, who drove over from Modesto to join me. We had some great seafood dinners - and even better conversations - watching the pelicans and seals and the setting sun (but no penguins). We’d head back to Mount Hermon, and if we had saved a bit of room, stop for some 1020 ice cream on the way, and I thanked God for the family He had given me.
We didn’t know that two months after last year’s traditional dinner, Matt would be in heaven. I think it was Bonhoeffer who observed that gratitude transforms the torment of memory into silent joy. I’m still grateful - deeply so. But sometime next week, I won’t be having dinner on the wharf.
For the last few years it has been a tradition. Father and son celebrated their birthdays together with dinner on the wharf in Santa Cruz. It was a good tradition that involved a spring trip to Mount Hermon for me and a few happy days off for Matt, who drove over from Modesto to join me. We had some great seafood dinners - and even better conversations - watching the pelicans and seals and the setting sun (but no penguins). We’d head back to Mount Hermon, and if we had saved a bit of room, stop for some 1020 ice cream on the way, and I thanked God for the family He had given me.
We didn’t know that two months after last year’s traditional dinner, Matt would be in heaven. I think it was Bonhoeffer who observed that gratitude transforms the torment of memory into silent joy. I’m still grateful - deeply so. But sometime next week, I won’t be having dinner on the wharf.
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