Saturday, we drove to the Gorge and scattered Jeffrey’s ashes. I’d decided to scatter them over the Wind River Bridge in Carson. Local call this the High Bridge, since it’s a long way down to the river. The view is spectacular.
Lon scattered Tessie’s ashes first. Tessie was my old Rottweiler and maybe one of Jeffrey’s favorite dogs of all time. She had cancer and I had her put down a few weeks ago. Her ashes went straight down. Then I scattered Jeffrey’s. There was a mist of ashes that hung in the air. In the light, you could see them trending upwards. It was very beautiful. Then the air cleared and they were gone.
I knew these were just the shell of Jeffrey and that his soul had departed October 13th of last year. But this ritual felt right and I’m glad I decided to place his ashes at this location. Lon and I went to the local Mexican restaurant afterwards. We had nachos and margaritas. Lon asked me to tell him about when I first met Jeffrey, back in college. It felt good to tell those stories again.
Today is the anniversary of the death of Lon’s wife, Kate. He’d planned to spread her ashes in the ocean, but that has been put on hold for awhile. He’s going in for hip surgery on the 22nd. He had hip replacement surgery 15 years ago, but one of the joints disintegrated. He won’t be able to put weight on that leg for three months. I suspect we’ll do the trip to the coast this coming spring.
The new job is going okay. I start my new shift tonight, 4:30 pm to 1 am. Maybe I’ll sleep better on this one. I don’t seem to be able to handle getting up at 5 in the morning any more.
I have been reading your blog since last year.
The story of losing Jefferey and finding Lon touched me.
I can’t believe it has been a hole year since Jeffrey died.
I hope you new job is going well and that Lon is back in the
boathouse asap.