We had Eric's Celebration ofLlife / birthday on 11/14 and I must say it was beautiful. There were approximately 60 people present and more via Zoom. The friends and family who spoke were reflective of Eric and how he impacted their lives and the lives around him, and as his wife I am overjoyed with the tributes to the man I love. The ceremony started with a welcome, prayer and short video that I put together and "Reflections" My Sister-in-Law gave a toast and I recited a poem near and dear to my heart and how I think of him.
Eric is an incredible man. As you can see I speak of him in the present tense. I realized how incredible he is even more with all of the accolades from friends and family. The night was magnificent. We had great food, wine, and celebrated Eric even though we are all saddened by his loss. I still cannot believe he's no longer here with us. As I stated in previous blogs, the nights are the toughest. As I become less and less busy settling the estate, my mind thinks of him and I start to weep. It's still unreal to me. I'm expecting Eric to walk through the door at any minute. It's like the last twenty years of our lives has been wiped out, which is completely ridiculous but it feels weird because he's not physically here.
I have to say, that I'm not surprised of the great words that everyone who spoke. I'm not surprised of all the incredible stories and how he is the smoothest "dude' they knew. How cool he was and how they have never heard him raise his voice. I had to clear that up though. Eric did raise his voice, not a lot but enough (smile).
We added a little purple for Pancreatic Cancer Awareness, purple masks, purple votive holders in honor of him and the continued fight of this very deadly disease. The ceremony ended with a toast from his sister, Deborah Eva and a poem I recited.
Shall I compare thee to a summers day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate,
Rough winds to shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease has all to short a date.
Sometimes to hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often does his gold complextion dims,
And every fair of fair sometimes declines,
By chance, or by natures changing course untrimmed
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owes't
Nor shall death brag, thou walkest in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grows't
As long as men can breathe, or eyes can see
As long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
That is Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare and it personifies everything I feel and think of about Eric in this time of my life. As long as I am alive, he is alive. When then said good-bye to our Zoom friends and had a great dinner and music. It was such a lovely evening, a lovely celebration to the man I will always love and cherish.
Here's a link to the video we presented, enjoy!