I started a tradition years ago of adding a cardinal to my Christmas tree each year to honor each significant person in our lives who passed away that year. I’d put their name and the year underneath. Over the past few years, the nest is getting much more populated.
By this summer, I knew this was the year I would have to add an ornament for Mitzi.
Over the past couple months, I just wasn’t up for buying one even if I saw one I liked. When I was in North Carolina for the Positive Approach to Care convention, I found a beautiful ornament with a male and female cardinal on it. Immediately I thought of the cardinal couple who were on Mitzi’s deck the evening we had to take her to Hospice. I had walked out of her room (after giving her the morphine that wasn’t working to ease her pain and agitation) and caught my breath as I realized this pair was watching at the glass door. The female flew to a nearby bush and the the male followed her after he let me snap a picture. I watched as they flew around the backyard for a few moments before I went back in to sit with Mitzi. It was one of those moments where you could just feel something was about to happen. I always thought that was so symbolic and special somehow; those cardinals. Especially because her Dad built her home years ago. It probably sounds kooky, but it was almost like her parents were there as she left her home for the last time that night.
- I bought the one ornament with the two cardinals on it for Mitzi’s sister. But I just never found one for me. Plus, we are in the process of buying a new home, so all of our Christmas stuff was in storage and I didn’t have much of anything to decorate. Until a dear friend gave me a fully decorated tabletop tree to put up. Along with it came a beautiful cardinal! I smiled every time I looked at our little “make-do” tree that just seems to go with the theme of this season of our lives this year. Then, just before Christmas, another sweet and very wise friend handed me a bag with this cardinal ornament that had a mirror inside of it. Along with that was the most encouraging card and these words that I just loved: “What a year! You loved, you lost, you uprooted and wandered while you wondered what God was doing. In all of it, He was with you and gave you incredible strength and grace to navigate and fulfill your promise to Mitzi. I love that this ornament is reflective because her story is now a part of yours.”There was such depth in that statement. Mitzi’s story, and the way her life has impacted mine (and the lives of all those her life touched) will be a part of my story and the way my life plays out. All of the people we bump into on this road of life have the potential to become like that mirror, weaving their stories into the greater whole of our own…????
