End of flight school, February 2005.

We are running a race this saturday in Memphis. More specifically, the Color Run. Who is we, you ask?

Two heart sisters, beautiful souls that loved and mourned Original J with me. Women that, like me, vowed to live well because she sacrificed her future.

We haven’t seen each other all together since January 2006.

And while the bonds we share are woven tight with grief, in this life we have joy together in community, in remembrance, in the living. 

I cannot wait to spend two days in smallish hotel rooms, children careening around us. (Our numbers have increased dramatically). Two of us have our own Jaimes now. Smart, beautiful, fashion-loving legacies of who she was and what we want to teach our babes.

I can’t wait to run jog through these 3.1 miles giving thanks for her and her life, making memories with the women who loved her and love me.

So that’s where I’ll be this Saturday. Racing, in community, in memoriam, with gratitude.  

Joyfully, for Jaime.

This is the day, July 17, 2004, that Husband and I started dating. Of course she was there.

This was the day, April 30, 2005, that we got married. Of course she was there.

~M.

(This post is part of Five Minute Fridays,  a weekly writing flash mob incited by Lisa Jo Baker over at Tales of a Gypsy Mama.)