Goodbye, Sweet (and funny) Ryan

Shayne is just a few hours from home now. He left after his (father/daughter) horse lesson with Shayla on Friday afternoon. I hated to have him drive all the way to Wisconsin by himself; however, I knew I didn't want to go to Ryan's funeral so I used the "I need to get Shayla to all of her Saturday activities excuse". When Shayne sent me a text, as I was driving Shayla to skating lessons this morning, that said, "I can't do this." I had no response for him because I felt the very same thing. How do you go to your friend's child's funeral? It's nothing anyone WANTS to do at all.

Although terribly sad, and downright wrong in my book why a child would have to fight cancer for 9 straight years and then perish, Shayne said the funeral service, grave site activities and luncheon were incredibly well done. The USC (Ryan's favorite team) coach spoke as did a former USC player who is a current professional football player (Arizona Cardinals). I was so grateful that Eric and Alicia made the trip to Wisconsin too so that Shayne wasn't alone. I really hated for him to be alone, for something like that; however, I knew I could not do it. (Remember I could not even go to Matt's funeral in September. I don't know if I will ever be able to go to another child's funeral. I sometimes smell fresh flowers and have to remove them from my surroundings because it reminds me of standing beside Christi's coffin - a sickening remembrance.) My prayers are with Kirby and his wife.

(PIC: Hats & Sweats Day at school. If you donated a $1.00 to "Pennies for Patients" at school, you could wear this. We had fun and it was a very comfortable day!)With Shayne out of town, I said to Shayla Friday afternoon that we could have a "Girl Party" for 24 hours. I told her I thought we could go to see a musical, we could also scrapbook and make cookies. She responded with, "No, that won't work for me." I said, "What????" She said, "I gave up sweets for lent so we can't make cookies." (Darn! Daddy is such a healthy eater that I enjoy indulging when he's not around!) Last year she gave up television and did great so I'm very proud of her for making this sacrifice during lent.

Although Shayla didn't undertsand all of the Catholic humor, we both really enjoyed watching the musical "Nunsense" showing at the Ritz Friday night.

Shayla was able to get together with her fellow "Munchkins" for pictures today. It's hard to believe the show will be here next week.
I still have tickets if anyone wants them! Let me know! They'll be yours!











Ryan's Website: http://caringbridge.org/visit/ryandavidson