Closure of a friend

Good bye dear friend you will be missed.
His Geneology
Click on there

Ray's son Gene came to visit.

We had a good visit. Some things he told about his dad that we didn't know and some we did. He told us stories of when he was a kid.It was good to hear those stories.
We had talked about were he wanted his dad's ashes to go, and since Ray really had not said much about it, other than Gene said that dad loved it around Bend, so i brought up the folks that go to the slabs in Niland California, were Ray spent his winters. I told him about the nice folks there that Ray loved and enjoyed spending time with, after showing him photos of the folks there and the place, and that they had asked if he would consider sharing some of those ashes so they can be spread there, Gene decided that is were he should be. So for closure for himself he asked me if his dad spent time smoking in the yard, asked if it would be ok to spread some of the ashes there. And then send the rest of the ashes to the slabs, Mary and Rich offered to pick them up on there way to the slabs in Sept/ Oct.when they will be coming thru.

So as i was fixing dinner i happend to see him in the yard, so I watched him out the kitchen window for awhile, he had his dad's ashes, spreading them under the tree, my tree, that i have nurtured since 9 x-mas's ago, when it was just a wee little tree. I felt so good that Gene chose to have Ray's ashes spread there. As i watched him he would stop and look up in the sky, i guess he and Ray were having words, I shed my own tears, relizing now that it was all true for sure. No more Ray on line, no more, "hope to see ya later this summer", no more tater salad,nope that tator salad is never going to be something i am really not going to enjoy making anymore, I guess that was something special between him and i, he loved my salad and said noone made it as good as me, silly as that sounds to you all, but i guess we all have something that tied us to him, in some special way.

I got this on a site and thought it was so appropriate,

Special People

There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you want to
pick them from your dreams and hug them. Dream what you want to dream;
go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only
one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do. May you
have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you
strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy.
Always put yourself in others' shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it
probably hurts the other person, too. The happiest of people don't
necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of
everything that comes along their way. Happiness lives for those who
cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who tried, for
only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their
lives. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss and ends with a tear.
The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you can't
go on well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life so that when you die, you're the one who is smiling and
everyone around you is crying