Today The Sun's On Us

At Wendy’s memorial on Saturday, her step-dad Dale told everyone that he’d been seeing a lot of yellow butterflies fluttering around since Wendy’s passing. I couldn’t really hear everything he was saying, but I am pretty sure he said he believed the butterflies were her spirit being present around us. I’ve always thought those types of things were coincidences or us trying to hobnail pieces together to make ourselves feel better. But, I have to say I do find it interesting that the moment Melissa and Desi (who are mutual friends of both Wendy and I) arrived for the picnic today, a yellow butterfly buzzed us and came right into our circle, did a fly by and then flew off. Later in the day a jogger ran by the picnic with a shirt that simply read, “Team Wendy.” I may be grasping at straws to feel connections with my departed friend, but I have to say, it was pretty darn awesome.

Speaking of awesome, wow, what a picnic! Twenty-one adults, seventeen kiddos, one dog, and I swear a near twenty pound chocolate cake made by Addi’s Aunt Jeanne gathered by Lake Washington for my celebration picnic today. The majority of people were classmates of mine from Ketchikan, some of whom I haven’t seen in over fifteen years! People drove from all over Washington and as far as Oregon and boy did I feel special. I tried to spend time with everyone who came, but found it hard to spend as much time with people as I wanted to. Five hours flies by fast when visiting with people one hasn’t seen in a long time. For me, the best part was watching our kids play with each other as if they’d known each other for years.





Strangely enough, getting cancer had its benefits. For one, my girls got to spend a lot more time with both their grandmother’s, which was beneficial not only for my girls, but for their grandma’s as well. Second, it put me back in contact with a lot of friends I had lost touch with over the years. I’ve also been able to spend time with friends that I only see once in a blue moon. And, I got to see Wendy twice before she died. It’s got me thinking that it’s unfortunate it had to take me getting cancer to help me see the value in seeing my friends and family more often, but it’s something I’ll never take for granted again.



My weekend started out cloudy and full of tears, but it ended with sunshine and smiles. I hear the weather has been cruddy in Juneau. Well get ready folks, because even if it’s cloudy, I’m bringing enough sunshine to go around.