Wow, I have not checked on this for quite awhile and it has been a half a year since I last posted on this blog. I promise to do a better job!
It has been a crazy 6 months since my last post. We got through another holiday season without Stephen and it was ok. We know that all of our holiday's from that day forward are going to be missing something. Yes we celebrate the fact the we still have each other and our parents are still in relatively good health, so the good things don't go unnoticed. However, there still is an empty chair at the table and there always will be. So I don't apologize for not being excited when the Christmas season rolls around'. I know that time and maybe a couple of grand babies will help fill the void someday, but for now we just endure.
We hosted a successful Stephen Reynolds Alumni Hockey game. We had 45 skaters, and raised some money for the S7R Foundation. We are planning on doing this every year, to raise money for the Stephen Reynolds Foundation as well as promote Willmar Hockey and Alumni!
The week of Stephens Birthday as always is a tough time of the year, since it is so close to Mothers day Darla bears a heavier burden emotionally, this year was no exception. We went his grave on his birthday and we were joined by our friends Kim and Alison. We visited a little and as we did last year had a few toasts to honor #7. He would have been happy the St. Louis Blues made the Stanley Cup playoffs but would also be disappointed with their early exit.
It seems that signs of Stephen are all around us, some are more noticeable than others and they seem to be fluid. By that I mean we see more at times than others. This past week we seemed to be surrounded by signs of Stephen.
First Darla was cleaning the basement bathroom to make room for Alex to move into Anthony's bedroom and while cleaning she discovered all of Stephens old orthodontic molds She was overwhelmed with emotion.
Then the following Saturday night Kim sent a text message that she got home and there was an injured goose in her driveway. Now the story about the goose is that at Stephens graveside service hundreds of geese flew over when we were almost finished. Pastor Chad told us that goose is a Gaelic symbol for Christ. So from time to time when we are at the cemetery sitting on the bench and visiting with Stephen a lone goose every now an again flies over, we think that is his spirit just stopping by to let us know he is ok. So back to Kim's driveway, the goose was in front of her garage where Stephen enjoyed many pre football tail gate parties with many of our friends. Since he normally would not say 2 words the girls would tease him a little and he enjoyed every minute of it.
But there is more, Sunday I was in church doing my usher thing and Nancy who works at our church called me over and said she had something for me. She handed me a bag and said that she was cleaning out her office and she cam across a picture of Stephen and Graham Dahl when they were probably about 10 and a prayer shawl that he made for his first communion that never made it home. I do have to ask why that day and how in the world did one kids prayer shawl not get tossed in the garbage and end up back with us a dozen years later.
We are getting ready to award two more Scholarships on Friday. Each student gets $500 to put towards school. We really try to pick a student that works hard and really needs the money but most important they need to live life "Renny's Way".
We also have two events coming up in June, the 2nd annual disc golf event at Robbins Island and the Small Ball tournament that is hosted by Sam and Nate Esboldt. We are so grateful to all of our sponsors and supporters that have held us up this past year and a half we could not do this without their help.
Looking forward to Summer!
I will promise to post more often.
Mike
