Our Yearly Florida Adventure-Part 1

This years Florida memorial trip was a adventure for sure. We decided to take in some enjoyment along with the Memorials. I will share those later this week.

EOW 5-16-1961

Remembering the lost of a love one can be a sad time. I met some new survivors this year as well as some that are attending for the first time since the death of their love one. This is a hard thing to do, that is attending a yearly memorial for the Love One so long gone. However, you see some of us do not deal with the lost until years or decades later. We think we are okay with it. That is not the case. some lose their family member early in their life. The thought is, Just move on and you will be fine. That is not so, for I found out the hard way. I was seven years old when my grandfather was murdered and was not allowed to go to the funeral. Was told Grandpa died, you will be staying with friend while Dad and I go to the funeral. Mostly it was because of the distant we were away for the Murder site. The other reason was that they thought we were too young to understand. Of course the thought was children do better at moving on. Now we know this is not so.

Anyways, the first time I attended a survivor function, was a very emotional time. I was in my forties. I cried so hard, didn't realize that impact his death had on my life. Death is something that we should allow ourselves to deal with, no matter what age. Today is different then the 1960's were. There are survivors support all around. I am better at the emotional part now.

The yearly Florida trip has help me a lot in this process. It has also helped my child, she is honoring her Great Grandfather, who she never had the opportunity to meet. You see that was taken away from her by a man who decided to kill a Police Detective. A man who was doing his job protecting the citizens. Oh for your information the murder did get the electric chair and pretty fast at that. For he admitted to killing my grandfather on purpose and with no remorse.

We will continue to make the yearly trip. I still have the warm feeling of my Mothers Love and know she would approve of this continuing adventure to Florida. My hope is that she is with him now in Heaven. She had to live a long life with out him. My 93 Grandmother is still on this earth. she also is living without the Love of her life. His son, my Uncle followed in his footstep and is now retired from the Police force. However still working in the Law Enforcement area. Our lives go on however we stop one time a year to show our love and pay our respect. We also get our support to the other survivors.