A Final Farwell to Our Southern Belle

In August, Tyler, Ethan, Alayna, and I went on a trip to the East Coast. We stayed in both Maryland and North Carolina. The purpose of this trip was to say a final farewell to our beloved grandmother who died in November 2006. When she passed away in a Vermont care center, one of the staff said, "We lost our southern belle." I miss her.

Both boys were able to place a shovel full of dirt in the ground. I hope I can pass on to them how special Grandmother was to our family. She has an indelible place in my heart and in my memories.

Every summer as a child, my family would spend a week at Oak Island, North Carolina. Because we were laying my Grandmother's ashes to rest in Kinston, NC, we all decided the best thing would be to revisit Oak Island. The first day there, I tried to innundate my children with memories from my childhood. To my dismay they hardly seemed interested. I realized they had to discover the fun things about the beach for themselves, at their own pace. We had a great time and the boys learned the joys of boogie boarding, walking on the piers, and searching for crabs at night by flashlight.