Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Remembering Uncle David


Uncle David at Christmas
Originally uploaded by SyntaxError.
We told the kids a couple days ago about David's passing. Melissa and Michael are taking it pretty hard. Maddy is really too young to understand.

Melissa really wants to go visit Auntie Gail when Allan goes out, but his ticket is already bought, and it's easier for him to travel by himself versus with a small child. We thought it might be too hard on her emotionally to be there and it might not be a good time to have a small child underfoot.

Though I'm still questioning if that was right right decision or not. Melissa is old enough to not only be sad that she won't see Uncle David again but to be sad because Auntie Gail has lost Uncle David.

Michael said something very insightful when he heard the news. "We need to talk about the things that we did with Uncle David so that we can remember". Michael was working on this Christmas picture for Uncle David and he's changed it from "To Uncle David" to "To Auntie Gail - to remind you of Uncle David".

Melissa drew this photo: "Me giving Uncle David his present last year at Christmas".

In remembering we have gone through photos online and on our computer from David's visits here and Melissa's trip out to the wedding earlier this year. We also made some video clips of the kids with some of the things they remember. Allan is putting all this together as a short video montage. It's going to be for both Auntie Gail and for the kids to have and remember with. Because even in the little bit of time they had to spend with David he made an impact on their lives (like Michael's ongoing interest in airplanes).

2 comments:

Whyme said...

Those are lovely tributes from the kids. I am sure that they will be well received.

Sunny said...

This trip is more for Gail than any of the children.
Alan needs to be free to take care of Gail rather than have to also take care of Melissa. I think you made the right decision to keep Melissa home UNLESS it would be more helpful to Gail to have her there or not. Sounds like you are doing a great job of helping the kids process it.