ANGELS, BUTTERFLIES, & LIGHT

Robin, Luke's Dad, always wears a little sterling silver butterfly on his collar in honor of Luke. One day a few weeks ago at work, someone asked Robin why he wore the butterfly, so Robin told him all about Luke. Then the guy told Robin about the MONARCH BUTTERFLY MIGRATION, about 45 minutes from Robin's apartment in California. They first appear in October and stay until the end of February. We were amazed, because the Monarch is one of our special signs for Luke because of the color being ORANGE AND BLACK, since Luke was born on Halloween. So on Sunday, January 16, 2005, Robin and I went to see the butterflies...............

The weather was beautiful... sunny, warm, and a bright blue sky.

As we were driving through this small town on the coast, we noticed this cemetery with many huge ANGEL statues. So we stopped and walked right up to the biggest angel statue and took photos. Robin said..."Christine, look." Well, right next to this huge angel was a headstone with a name on it and the words....Age 21 years. That is the age of Luke when he died. We took several more photos in this little cemetery.

Well we made it to the BUTTERFLY GROVE, as they call it. We started down the path, and noticed tons of butterflies flying all around us and above our heads. We brought BLUE, our Basset Hound along. Robin and I were looking up in the sky, walking down the path, and then all of a sudden, Blue stops and jerks the leash. We look back and wouldn't you know it, Blue decides to take a poop, right in the middle of the butterfly grove... OMG.

Anyway the butterflies were everywhere. The trees were covered with them. I was looking at the tree trunks and was wondering why leaves were growing out of the trunk.... but NO, it was not leaves, it was hundreds of butterflies. We looked at the branches of the trees and they were all clinging to the branches. It was a sight beyond description. I'll have to tell you, it was very spiritual, and amazing to see so many symbols of rebirth all in this one area.

We took the path out to the beach. All along the path were beautiful flowers. The path led to the top of a hill that overlooked the beach. We stopped and sat on tree trunks and took in the feeling of wonderment from the beauty of this place and from all the butterflies. I was sitting on a stump that was shaded by one of these huge trees. The sunlight was coming through the trees in such a way, that it TOO felt spiritual. I held my camera up to take a photo, and when I did, the sunlight transformed into this beautiful star with beams of light. I took several photos, because I was amazed at this occurrence. I was in deep thought looking at this light, and then I heard a voice right next to my ear, the voice of a little boy... He said..."Can I ask what you are looking at?" I said yes, look at the light how it comes through the trees, and then look at it in the camera lens. He bent over and looked and he too was amazed. I asked his age and he said he was 12, so I asked his name and he said......JACOB. I thought that was really neat, because that is the name Luke was SUPPOSED to be named, but we chose another name...long story.

So then Robin and Blue and I started walking down the hill to the beach. Then we heard a male voice say..... "EMILY!!!!". Robin and I both looked at each other, startled, and then we looked way across the beach to another hill where we saw this guy standing there. Once again he said..."EMILY, COME HERE". Then he said..."EMILY ROSS, come here right now." Robin and I just about fell over, then this little blond haired 3 year old girl came running from the other side of the hill. WOW... what are the chances???

Well, we walked out to the beach and to the waters edge. I picked up a big stick and started writing in the sand. I wrote LUKE in the sand. Arlene, Danny's Mom would be coming to visit next week, so I wrote DANNY (Arlene's son) in the sand too.

Then Robin and I started heading back away from the beach, back to the butterfly grove. We were just about back to the grove, and this lady and her little boy pass. Well, the little boy saw Blue and said..."Hey doggie." So Robin, stopped and turned around and said..."Do you want to pet the doggie." The little boy said..."Yes". He looked to be about 3 years old. So he and Blue made friends instantly. The lady said..."What is your doggies name." I said..."Blue, and what is your little boy's name." and she said...."LUCAS". Robin and I both gasped and both said at the same time...."What did you say." She said again..."LUCAS". I said... "OMG, you have got to be kidding me. That is our son's name, and we are here in his honor, because he died." The lady said... "Wow, this must have been meant to be." She said... "We almost did not come, but as we were passing, we pulled in at the last minute." She said... "We all met at just this exact moment." So we said... "Well, we got our sign from our son." She said, how do you spell his name, we told her, and then she said..."Well, we spell his name L U K A S, but we call him LUKE." We just laughed and told her that we call our LUCAS... Luke too. So I asked if we could take a photo of LUKAS, and they graciously allowed us to. As we left, I stooped down and held my hand out and said.... "Nice to meet you Lukas." He reached out and shook my hand.... It was AMAZING. Then as we walked away, Robin and I both turned back and said...."BYE LUKE, SEE YA LATER." That old Basset Hound really has a connection to Luke.

So with this, we were grinning from ear to ear. OMG... and thought that WAS IT... all of our signs, but we were mistaken. When we were back in the grove, another man came up to Robin and said..."Hey, I have a Basset Hound named DUKE." Well, we couldn't help but think of DUKES OF HAZZARD, and Beau and Luke.

Then Robin went to the car to get more discs for the camera. He found a pair of sunglasses in the parking lot and brought them to me because he said... Maybe they will have some connection. We looked at them and didn't know of a connection until I looked at the brand.... ARMANI. Last year when Arlene, Danny's mom visited, she gave me one of DANNY'S SHIRTS, and it was an ARMANI!!!! I guess that was DANNY'S way of saying THANKS for writing his name in the sand... Danny loves the beach!!!!

So then we left and decided...WHAT THE HECK, with this day going so well, we were going to go by LUCAS AND LEWELLEN, the wine tasting room on the way home. We were driving down the freeway and talking about all that had happened, and then Robin said..."OMG... look at the frame around that license plate." We got closer to it and it said....HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU... UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN... Well, UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN, is on Lukes Memorial Stone. The reason is because the last gift Luke ever gave me was a music box that played... HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU, UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN. We were both AMAZED again, and then I said..."Wow, Luke ...THANK YOU!!! You are amazing... this is so Cool". Then Robin said.... OMG...LOOK AT THAT LICENSE PLATE. The very next car had a license plate that said... KULE MOM. K U L E rearranged spells LUKE!!!

   
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