Recently... I had an honor to attend a very special memorial of my girlfriend Penelope's father's memorial. I am so lucky to have her as my friend for nearly 15 years... and I know of her family mostly through her. It was such a shock when her father passed away suddenly when we were still in Germany. Even though I did not have a chance to really really get to know him in person, it felt so important to attend his memorial... so I did with my little Roo in my arm. At his memorial, I was anxious if Roo would last for any moment... knowing her temper. (she usually asks me "please let's go outside" whenever when we go to an indoor event with many people around us... you know what I mean if you have seen two year old closely). Magically she didn't make a fuss at his memorial when I told her that I would love to hear Penelope's papa's stories and see a special movie (aka a slide show) of him. There were a few great people who spoke at his memorial... all from different parts of his life. I cried in the very back row listening to these stories and holding Roo.
It was simply heart moving.
Just to know that I would be able to share these stories with my family and more for many years to come... and also to know that a part of my friend's greatness comes from her father that was distilled in these great stories...
Few years ago FB and I talked about the idea that the life simply is a collection of memories when we leave this world to the next and Penelope's father's memorial really brought me back the idea.
So now the question is... what kind of stories are we leaving behind?
I hope they are good stories to remember... and we still do have a chance to take a stub at our stories by living our lives...
Today... I just want to thank Penelope's father for bringing the moments to reflect the kind of a life lesson only a great person can bring to other people's lives.
Really... life is stories.
