Wayne's Birthday Party

This last week was a hard one for me and my family. It was my brother, Wayne's, birthday on Nov. 22nd, he would have been 33. This was the first year in my entire life that I didn't talk to him or see him on his birthday. We also happend to recieve word from the mortuarty that his headstone was finally in place. In honor of Wayne we gathered a group of family and friends at the cemetary to celebrate.

We sure picked a cold and windy day! We did it on Sat. Nov 20th and my dad found out that by sheer coincidence that day is the National Suicide Survivors Day, for those who don't know the lingo, a Suicide Survivor doesn't refer to someone who attempted and failed to committ suicide, it refers to the surviving loved ones left behind when someone succeeds with suicide......how appropriate.


We bought 33 balloons and each took a turn writing a personal birthday message to Wayne on our balloon with marker.

Our plan backfired when the balloons were so tangled (from the wind) that we couldn't get them seperated so we decided to let my two brothers release them as a bunch......and they promptly got blown into a tree. We just laughed it off and said that Wayne probably had a hand in that one....he loved to tease!

Afterwards we all had hoagie sandwiches and pumpkin pie, we always had pumpkin pie on Wayne's birthday.

Seeing this was tough.......

Even though it's been 7 months it still doesn't seem real at times. His name just does NOT belong on a headstone. I love him and miss him more than I can say. I think of him every single day. Happy Birthday Big Brother!