A summer (miracle?) story

It is very cold outside today (for Florida).  I have to say that first, because it is a law in Florida that if the temperature is below 40 degrees, you must first make comment on the weather before saying anything else. 

As Christmas approaches, my mind wanders towards miracles, so I thought I would share a true story, even though it is a summer story (actually I thought I had published this story before, but I guess not...the mind is a a terrible thing).  I'll leave you to decide for yourself if it qualifies as a miracle story, but please respect my wish that you keep any non-believing thoughts to yourself.  It is my miracle, please let me have it my way :). 

A picture I borrowed to
represent myself

First the back story, because without the back story, there is no miracle, just carelessness.  To understand the story, you must know that my nickname among my closest friends is Happy (never mind why, it isn't important).  Second, you must know that since being bestowed this nickname, I often use a 1970's style yellow Happy Face to represent myself.  Third, it is a fact that on the day that this story happened, my FB profile picture was a picture of a woman hiding behind a Mylar happy face balloon (representing the happy face that we, the grieving, hide behind for the rest of the world). 

Mich in her famous
tie dye with a friend
she ran into at a concert

Next you must know a little bit about my daughter, Michaela.  Michaela was a bright color fanatic.  She decorated everything around her in the brightest colors she could find.  She was the Queen of Tie Dye. She loved balloons and for a very long time had a deflated, crazy colored Mylar fish balloon hung on her wall.  A few short weeks before her accident, we went to see the movie Up!.  It was the last movie we saw together.  She absolutely loved it of course, it was 100% her...bright and colorful and all about the importance of relationships over things.  And lastly, she was scrupulous about making sure that I had no reason to worry about her, particularly that summer...if she was going to be late or stay with a friend, she made sure I knew where she was (even though she was an adult). 



A few of her favorite things

 Now the story.  On a late June Sunday afternoon, a year after her accident, we held a 'Remembrance' at the beach where we had put her remains.  This beach is at the far north end of a lifeguard protected beach (one of the few in the area).  It was a perfectly beautiful day and my friends came out for the day from all over Florida.  We sprawled out under awnings and beach umbrellas sharing drinks, and stories, and pictures.  We took some of her favorite things with us.  It was a nice day.  A good day to remember. 



Flowers put on the beach on
Long Island in Rembrance (daffodils
were her favorite flower)

 Mid-afternoon, at the very edge of the horizon, floating slowly north, we could see something glinting in the sun.  It was much too far away to see what it was, but we all watched its slow progress up the coast.  Moving steadily North, not moving out to sea or closer to the beach.  It floated past the last lifeguard stand (about 100 yards south of us).  As it passed his stand, he decided to 'rescue' it (apparently none of the other lifeguards had thought to do this).  It took him a very long time to swim out to what we could now clearly see.  It floated past us with the lifeguard in hot pursuit.  Finally he caught it, and swam in with it (about 100 yards north of us).  Then he carried it back down the beach to his lifeguard stand and tied it there, where it amazingly had enough air left to keep it floating lazily behind the chair for the rest of the afternoon.

As I'm sure you have figured out by now, it was a bunch of Mylar balloons.  But not just any old balloons, it was a bouquet of yellow happy face balloons (4 of them) with a few smaller red and blue balloons thrown in for color.  I have only this one picture.  I don't know why there weren't more.  I think we were all too stunned (and crying) to think to take any.



The lifeguard in action