2020 marks the 10th Christmas holiday season we have endured without our precious and amazing Tyler. Like marathon runners, we find ourselves physically and emotionally preparing for the months of November through January. It’s a recurring heartache and emotional struggle that steadfastly repeats itself year-after-year. And now, now that its over, the experience once again leaves us feeling like victims of a brutal assault, thankful that the assailant has finally stopped the attack and walked away. For now!
Nothing about the holiday season is easy, but that doesn’t mean we don’t find incredible beauty and meaning as we trudge our way through. One such difficult, beautiful encounter is the ornament that suddenly and mysteriously appears each year at Christmas-time carefully hung on Tyler’s Tree of Hope – the centerpiece of Tyler’s Memorial Garden occupying our front yard. Spotting this memento stops us in our tracks every. single. year. Why?… Because we know the depth of love from where it comes and it reminds us that others share the recurring heartache and struggle as we do. It’s so downright difficult, yet so magnificently beautiful that we are instantly moved to tears.
For 10 long and difficult years this very special person continues to share his love and his heart for his cherished and beloved childhood friend – a friendship that lives beyond a lifetime. 10 years of difficult beauty transformed into a tradition that has captured our hearts and squeezed us into breathlessness and tears as it causes us to reflect on the incredible and special love Tyler shared beyond our own four walls. This someone special is and forever will, remain a part of our family and a treasure we shall never release from our grasp. Thank you, for your indissoluble love!
