Christi's Funeral Clip Here

1997, Christi - 5 months, dressed as a pumpkin and went Trick or Treating at Grandma Nonee and Paw Paws. (They gave her little jars of baby food! I treasure those memories and am so thankful to now have the images on CD roms.

I recently received a card from a COSI "far away" friend who said she was sorry she couldn't attend, but she heard it was like "a funeral of a rock star". It cracked me up! For anyone who may have wanted to attend but could not, the wonderful Trauneros and talented Digital Dreams DVD people have put a video clip together for you. Eric also has this on Christi's home page, but you can click here. (Just to warn you: It is about 30 minutes long; it does not contain the Mass and it does show Christi's body in the casket in case you don't want to see.)
http://www.nationaltributes.com/videos/C_Thomas.html

"Windy" may look familiar after watching the video. Windy is the horse which was used at the Grine's 9th birthday party they held for Christi and it was also walked by one of Christi's babysitters, Kelsey Grine, as "The Riderless Horse" which led us to the church.

Prior to Shayne's depature, we'd had a lot of great discussion regarding how the Christi Thomas Memorial Fund will be utilized. I think we have a lot of wonderful ideas in the works and we'll soon be able to share more about that and about how kids will benefit. Thank you to everyone for your incredible generosity and to the Gillmor Trust, a donor-advised fund and 501(c)(3) Charity managing this for us.

I visited Jeffery's Jewelry today. The Cooper's generosity left me in tears. I am stunned by their incredible gift I shall treasure and proudly wear around my neck for years to come! Since I wasn't too far away I next drove out to Christi's grave to try to get myself together and to spend some quiet time in prayer. Again I was moved to see two new flowers were sitting at Christi's grave. (I actually think a couple of sweet 7th graders are responsible. Don't they know Mr. Jones is giving their grade cards tomorrow? I don't return until next week, hee hee.)

This morning wasn't the only time a generous gift which left me in tears today. Last week I took all of the negatives of the photos I'd taken from 1997 to 2002(when I switched to a digital camera) to a sweet, hard working man who put them on CD roms for me for a grand total of $27.99. When I called their store last week and asked him if they did that he jokingly responded, "Not if you plan to bring a whole bunch of negatives in here." (Well of course I did!) I quickly explained my situation and he said, "Bring them in. I'll take a lot at how many you have and I'll give you an estimate." There could be no greater gift. I'd forgotten many things over the years and these photos bring it all back. Don't worry (ha ha) I'll be sharing some "oldies but goodies" soon! God bless, Coopers, God bless, John! (PHOTO: CT, age 3, "Artist in Action")

On our way home from Toledo today Shayla said, "Mom, I've never seen the clouds look like that before." I joked, "I wonder if it's a Christi art project gone bad," which caused Shayla to laugh. Soon she noticed the bright red sunset out the other window. She said, "Mom, look!! I've never seen a sunset that red before." I said, "Did Christi know my favorite color?" (Of course she did.) Shayla squealed, "Yes and that's it!!!" I wondered if these were signs from Christi telling me I'd be okay at church tonight. Regardless, my stomach was a mess driving Shayla home from her therapy this afternoon knowing it was the Mass for "All Souls Day" and that's when I chickened out and decided I would drop Shayla off and then return home alone.