As I sat down to post this, I then realized that I had to write something, and then I realized there just is no way around crying! These photos were taken on Thanksgiving day with my family. We are happy, smiling, joking, laughing people, but behind these smiles, there is pain that we fought off all day long. Thank God we had each other. This was our first holiday without our Deddy. Deddy passed away September 14th of this year from a stroke while recovering from an initial stroke. It doesn't feel real. Like my sister, Rainey, said, he should have been lying on the couch with his blanket in his mouth or cooking wild turkey with Papa or talking "tough guy" baby talk to his grandson, Jericho.
We attended an eye organ donor ceremony this past weekend where we all went to the front of the crowd and talked about Deddy. I will say about the same thing that I said there while we all fought our tears. My son, Jericho Lee ("Mini-Lee" in the words of Deddy), was born about a month before Deddy's first stroke. All I can do now is look at him every single day, and it somehow makes it better for me, makes it better for my entire family. Jericho has no idea what he's done for his Granny, his Aunties, and his Mama.
These photos were literally taken just in front of Deddy's grave in the field in front of the house, and while some may find that kind of strange, we don't. We find it amazingly comforting knowing that he was right there with us.
