I had been anticipating the one year anniversary of Liza's death with dread. Everything with Liza was a first and I had never been through this before and I was not sure how I would handle living through the anniversary of losing her. Fortunately, we have a loving Heavenly Father who sent me blessings, angels, help and perspective just in time.
I knew that Liza's loving and beautiful spirit would not want me to relive all heartache of losing her and that I should find positive ways to celebrate her life, even on the anniversary of her death.
A friend suggested that we all do something as a family and share memories of Liza on her anniversary. I sent out an email to the family and some responded with beautiful and new stories about Liza and that was wonderful, but more importantly, it got me focused on the positive.
Michelle Sanders was one of my angels. The night before the anniversary, she brought over a book called "Forest Born" that reminded her a lot of Liza (and it did to me too!) and a beautiful poem where she reminded me that a lot has happened in this year, a year of learning and growing and loving and a year closer to seeing Liza again! I LOVED that last part the most and my focus on the positive was getting clearer.
Liza has two anniversaries. The 26th of January is the last day she was living on this earth, and she died that night. The 27th was the day we found out she had died and that is the official date of her death. Leave it to Liza to spread things out over a couple days. :)
On the 26th, I wanted to spend some quiet alone time with Liza so I went to visit her cemetery and I cried and watched her videos, looked at pictures, talked to her and just reflected. After a long time I went into the main office at the cemetery to use the restroom and to see what plots were still available by Liza because that is where I want to be buried too (my parents already have a spot by her reserved)/ When I got back from the office, two women were standing by Liza's place and I thought maybe they were some of her friends visiting her on her anniversary (or as I like to call it, her "Graduation Day").
I went up and asked them if they were Liza's friends and they said, No, they were Justin B. Johnson's mother and sister. Justin is buried right above Liza and to the left. you can see the his grave marker and blue and white flowers in front of us and to the left in this picture. Liza is to our right. His sister is pictured above and her name is Chi Lopes. She is his only sibling. His mother looks young enough to be his sister too and her name is Renae Johnson. She is pictured with me below. They were two of my angels that day. Chi and Renae just happened to be in town (Chi lives in LA, and her mom in Tennessee) for a wedding that weekend and thought they would visit Justin and bring him new flowers. Little did they know it was Liza's graduation day that day. We couldn't believe the perfect timing of us actually meeting because they had been wondering who Liza was and what she was like, just as we had wondered about Justin.
Justin was born on June 2, 1979 which made him 10 years older than Liza, but like Liza, he died young. He was only 29 when he was in a car accident on the way to work on New Year's Day, 2008. He had been a very troubled soul and had just recently been getting his life back on track. He had even been reading in the Bible and doing his laundry before heading to work that day. We had so much fun talking all about our loved ones and how similar they were and how we felt comfort knowing they were safe at home with their loving Father in Heaven and that their spirits still live and watch over us.
They remembered a day when they were visiting Justin at the cemetery and while they were weeping by his grave, someone was stealing his mother's wallet from her car! They were just sure he was probably trying to get them to stop crying and start paying attention to the car and the thief! We speculated together whether Justin and Liza knew each other now and wondered if they weren't both very excited that we had met each other and were finding great comfort in our new friendship. I'm sure they were high-fiving each other that their families were friends too.
Justin is pictured on the left, then Chi, Renae, and his father. They live in Nashville, TN but were here in Arizona (where they are originally from) for Christmas break when Justin died and have a lot of family here. How blessed am I to get hugs and encouragement from these beautiful women on a day that I needed it so very much. I was in awe at the tender mercies of the Lord, and still am.
I love looking through my Liza scrapbook and all the cute things she made us over the years!
So on the next day, Jan. 27th, I decided to be like Liza, put on my Rollersaurus shirts and head to the mountains for a hike. What better way to feel close to her, and I really did. It was so nice hiking Lost Dutchman's State Park, near the Superstition Mtns. and remembering how we hung out with Liza at the ghost town (Goldfield) near by the last time we were together. I love how the desert was covered with this green wild grasses from all the spring rains.
Wow. Beautiful!
I just had to do the "Liza Rollersaurus Pose" when I got to the top!
Up there I met another angel. I thought at first it was my Aunt Pat Koski, who was in the valley for the winter. I said to this lady, who was hiking with 5 snowbird friends, "Are you my Aunt Pat?" She surprised me by saying, "No, but you've asked me that before!" She said that someone asked her if she was their Aunt Pat last year at the mall in Gilbert. I don't remember that but perhaps one of my sisters or kids had run into her before. We had a good laugh and her friends took our picture. The asked me about my shirt and my necklace, which has Liza's picture in it and I told them about Liza and why I was up on the mountain. They were so sweet and comforting and hugged me and asked for God to bless me. He was!!!
Just a week or so later, the REAL Aunt Pat cam over to mom and dad's for lunch and I told her the story and she got a kick out of it. We got our picture together too. Do you see the similarities? Same classic gold hoop earrings that Pat always wears. Both are tan with similar hair. Anyways. I am blessed to have both Aunt Pats (actually the one pictured above is named Martha).
Later on the 27th, the girls and I went to check on the progress of the Gilbert Temple. Can't wait for it to be done, but it has been fun to watch it grow!
We finished Liza's special day with a whole herd of Rollesauruses at the Wilson's house!
Clark doing something crazy.
Texting, lounging, playing with Legos, enjoying each other's company.
Peter was our "gift" and kept popping out of this box and laughing so hard! Precious.
I love you Liza! One year closer to being together again!
