Meet You In My Dreams…..

The past 12 months have been a roller coaster of a year.  Looking back 12 months to February 26, 2014 I was probably walking out of the hospital about now debating on whether to call Christian and asking him what type of wake board he wanted. (I don’t know why I have always remembered that little detail or thought).  I was resorting to bribery with a new boat and wake board to get him back home.  Back home to where he would be safe.  Back home to where he would be surrounded by people who had his back.  Back home to his friends and to people who cared about him.  But I decided not to call him right then because I knew he would probably be sleeping so I thought “I’ll call him later.”

We were eating supper when we received the first phone call.  My immediate response was not total alarm because I knew Christian was on the boat.  I had just talked to him that morning.  I told them they had the wrong person.  It was probably another random guy his girlfriend had at the apartment. But it definitely wasn’t Christian.

I kept telling them “It’s somebody else.  He’s on the boat”.

To prove I was right because of course I was right, I called Josh and told him to radio Christian’s boat and verify that he was on his shift because that had to be the reason why he wasn’t answering his phone.  It took approximately 20 minutes to verify that Christian was not on the boat….. and so it began.

As a family we have been tutored in many life lessons; some tough to swallow while others have been a blessing.  We have cried, shared, laughed, and remembered as many moments as we could.  Each of us quick to call the other if they found a picture or a friend shared a video.  We have greedily hoarded each new piece of the past that we could find or be given of Christian.  And each time we have been given a newly found picture or video there has been one common theme….. laughter, a good time, a happy moment captured.

And so today, almost to the hour that marks the anniversary of Christian’s death I want to share the last videos we have of Christian that were recently sent to us.  Most of you have probably already viewed the “Dance Off” but I couldn’t help but put it in this post because it sums up everything that made Christian who he was in less than two minutes.  And the second video would be how Christian would want to end today….. with a joke, laughter and friends.

“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh