A final resting place

On Saturday, 8/31/08, my brother, his wife and my family went to Holland State Park.

Why?

Because when we were little, we always went to Holland State Park. We'd get up early and drive the 30 minutes to the beach and we'd stay there almost all day. We'd have breakfast on the grill, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and shoestring potatoes for lunch, and we'd stop at Captain Sundae on the way home for ice cream.

We'd sit at the channel and watch the boats go in and out of the lake. We'd gaze at the lighthouse. My dad would have binoculars and would watch the "boats" go by. We'd go out to the water and play for hours. We'd sit in the sun and get sunburn. We'd go home full of sand but full of good memories.

I haven't been to Holland State Park in nearly 20 years I think. Not much has changed. People still sit along the channel and watch the boats go in and out. People still grill their food on the beach-provided grills. There's still lots of sand, lots of sun, the bathrooms still stink, and Lake Michigan is still gorgeous.

We had another reason for going to this beach on this particular day. It was our dad's 68th birthday that day. And tomorrow would have been our parents' 47th wedding anniversary. What a perfect way to remember our parents and our childhood by spending a day somewhere we always did.

At sunset we gathered their ashes and combined them into Aaron's sand pail. We walked in front of the lighthouse and scattered their ashes around a patch of beach grass. They are part of the beach now. It's how it should be. It's how they would have wanted it.



I asked Aaron what he wanted to say. He started singing Happy Birthday to Grampa and when he was finished I asked him if he wanted to say anything else.


I've said it before, the kid just knows. No matter what happens in my life, I've done something right.