As I look around the room, I can’t help but notice that this isn’t how we planned it.
The people here are different.
Some are missing.
Faces of people once known that we couldn’t picture a future without gone. People we thought would, should be here, aren’t. People we planned moments, memories, a life around. People we never imagined saying goodbye to and yet somehow at some time we did.
Some came later.
People we didn’t know we needed. People we built a life with, with no plan of doing so. People who filled holes in our hearts and our homes and none of us even knew. It came natural, easy. We couldn’t have picture them then and couldn’t imagine a life without them now.
A few have traveled long distances with us.
They saw the plan fall apart. They saw our grief, anger, and pain. They wiped our tears, heard our screams, reminded us it would be okay, and led us through the disbelief. They watched us stumble to pick up the pieces and with open hearts and tender love helped us let go of what wasn’t for us, even though it was planned, and put our broken parts back together. They were always pictured and somehow, through what appears to be lots of luck and love, made it here.
To this room.
With us.
Together.
It isn’t how we planned it.
This room is different than we pictured.
And, yet there is something heartbreakingly beautiful about that.
-Alexandra Skinner Walsh-
