Remembering our Steve

Four years ago today Steve died unexpectedly of pneumonia at the age of 43.I have been bracing myself all month for this day.

Today I feel I've handled it better than other years as I have tried to keep myself busy.
Tonight as the darkness came and at the slowing down of the activities of the day, memories of that night returned and there is a rerun of events of four years ago.
It is a deep loss in so many ways to lose a child. One that is hard to explain or understand until it has been experienced.

Sometimes I feel sadness as events happen in the lives of his children and I wish Steve were here to share in the joy of their achievements and to help and support them in their set backs.

No one can take the place of a father or mother in the life of a child. The love between Steve and his children was especially strong and close. Now there is a void where that closeness once was. He graduated to a Grandpa this month with the birth of Everett Neil. Yet, that precious little guy won't have the fun, love and companionship of Grandpa Steve. Steve would have thoroughly enjoyed and would have been a wonderful Grandpa.
This scene of an absent parent plays over and over in many homes and in many lives.

May we enjoy our life journey and truly love, help and treasure those we travel with along the way.

It is hard to understand why the journey is cut short without warning for those we are closest to.

Steve, we love and miss you.