05/23/2021
(Late post.. it was yesterday)
Well.. Today is the day.. Graduation Day. 🎓 Such a bittersweet day. Graduates are excited, very ready to be out of school and on to their new life journey. Friends and families are preparing to celebrate a great accomplishment of their high school seniors. The food has been picked, cake ordered and graduation announcements mailed. Classmates are picking out class colors, flowers, quotes, clothes they plan to wear and making plans for graduation day. I sit here and try to be very excited for Kaleb's graduating class, but very sad he will not be joining in the celebration. While others wear their cap and gowns and walk across that stage Kaleb wears his Angel wings and walks among streets of Gold.
On October 25, 2017 Kaleb passed from this life to his forever home in Heaven. . He was 14 years old. The most devastating day ever.. If he was alive, he would be graduating today. It’s another one of those humps in the road of grief I am working on. I have not been able to put those emotions out of my mind of Senior year and all the activities that comes with it. It is now sinking in how real it is. I am sad to be a parent who is not preparing for a graduation, but happy for his classmates who are.
Not only am I working on getting over another hump in the road but so is Kaleb's class. It has been a little less than four years since his passing, but the loss, hurt, sadness and change has been with us and all of his classmates since October 2017. They had to walk back into that school the day after he passed until today, the day they graduate and not see him. They have had to walk down the hall and not see his smile or hear his voice. Walk into classes they shared with Kaleb and not see his happy self sitting in his desk.. Weather they realize it or not they have carried that loss with them. It’s like being trapped in a dream you can’t get out of. For some of his classmates, they will move on easily but for others it will be a part of them forever.
I hope and pray that graduating and leaving that building will help them heal and wake up from that long dream. That it will help them get over the hill they have all been climbing.
The hill of loss.
I know it will still be in the back of their mind now and then. Especially on the anniversary date or his birthday. Maybe certain jokes, would you rathers, words or phrases will draw them back to Kaleb. But, hopefully all those things will bring them back to a happy time. Maybe they will remember his smile, laugh or some fun memory they had. I hope this loss of a friend will remind them that life is precious and that we are only given one. Make the most of it and never have any regrets. I hope they are reminded of his positive, fun, happy, personality and try to be a little more like that each day. Be kind like Kaleb and do those random acts of kindness and think of him when they do them... Kaleb was a true friend. He was a true Saint. He loved the unloved and friended the friendless.. He only wanted to help and be there for the people who had no one. I would encourage his class to look for the positive and find the good in life. Give a smile when you don’t really feel like doing it, because 9 times out of 10 that person needs it. You never know what people may be going through or trying to get through.
To his graduating class – please remember that Kaleb is an angel who is with you always and will always be watching over you and walking by your side.
Fly high handsome. CAN'T WAIT TO GET TO HEAVEN TO YOU AND JARRID.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
