A beautiful thing

A beautiful thing happened today. A multitude of familes from our school community came out to help and honor the family who lost their mom/wife. One of her last wishes was to have a swing installed in the backyard for the children. She specifically requested a park quality swing. Their yard needed some changes to be prepared for said swing...so we all came to pitch in. Many of the men set to work to solve the 'riddle' of how to level the earth to make the area ready while many of the other men and women set about to tackle the front and back yard which had become overgrown due to the fact that the family's focus was understandably elsewhere.

When we first arrived it felt like an overwhelming and 'impossible' feat to be able to pull up all the weeds and overgrowth, and to plant some annuals to add some color to their front yard. Well, we left that house 5 hours later and the front yard looked fabulous and by golly the back yard looked 100 times better than we had started. It was an amazing feeling to see all of the families rally. Many of us mom's couldn't make direct eye contact or we might cry, or we would make eye contact and share a knowing tear. Whenever the family's kids came out, it was hard not to weep, but we didn't let them see, we included them in our activites and made them feel special. What an amazing day it was.

We made so much progress and the yard looked fabulous. While we were working, I kept thinking about the men who were involved and wondering how it felt to them. The act of helping this family was rewarding in of itself, but to help one of "their kind" in this time which they would NEVER want to be; losing their wives, losing the mother of their children, being left a single dad, having to have others "help you", having to have people see you in the worst pain you can ever imagine. I guess today put a totally knew spin on Father's Day for many of the Dads who helped. I hope that the husband can look at his yard tomorrow and feel as though his wife had sent him her own special Father's Day gift through our busy little hands today.