Undying Love

Death is a crazy thing. It emits so many emotions from so many people. Some people react sad while others hide how they feel and "deal" with it internally. I say these things because everyday in my commute I pass by a pretty large cemetary in Gastonia, NC. About two months ago a person was buried fairly close to the street and this location allowed me to observe their graveside in passing. Right after the burial an older gentleman began sitting by this graveside. For almost TWO WEEKS straight I watched him daily sit in his chair (yes he took his own chair) and just sit right beside this grave! I had thoughts to myself like "Wow he must have really loved her" and "Man he must be really sad and alone to just sit there". I assume that this was his spouse but I guess it could have been a child, a friend or just about anybody. Slowly over the weeks he taperd off his visits and I rarely saw him. I still look daily to see if he will be there and two days this week he was back. Just sitting. Just watching. Spending time with this person that he must have loved oh so much!

This is where my mind starting racing and I began to wonder. How many people will be stricken with grief if I were to die? And how many of them would come and just sit with my body after I was gone? I wonder if Tony would come and sit and if our love is the undying love that this man obviously felt for this person that he lost. I have on many occasions almost turned the car around to go and speak to this man. Then I think, he is with that person alone because he wants to visit them and their memories, not some crazy stalker woman joining the two of them. A love that never wants to let go, but no matter how much he tries or sits or waits, he will never bring that person back. I guess that's why God gives us the days that he does give us. So that we can create that love while we are alive.

NC ZOO

We have this tradition that Abbygale goes to a different zoo every year. We have seen Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC (several times), Knoxville Zoo in TN, Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville, NC and SeaWorld in FL.
Well this year we decided that the NC Zoo was the place to go so that Abbygale could see Polar Bears! We try to find a new animal at each zoo we go to. Knoxville had a Bengal Tiger and of course SeaWorld has Shamu! Abbygale was really excited all week about this trip. We started on the African side and made the Polar Bears one of the last things that we saw. We saw some cool stuff before we got to Willy the Polar Bear though. One of which was a smaller elephant (not sure how old) and it was rolling around in the mud. Now I've been to zoos as stated above but I've never seen an elephant act like a pig!
Well after the elephant was done acting like a pig, he decided to go "clean off". He got into the watering hole there by all of us and starting swimming! I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen it myself, so I'm attaching pictures. At one point he was completely submerged in the water. It was really cool. Well of course the highlight of the day was seeing the Polar Bear, Willy. Abbygale just loved him. Here is a picture for your viewing pleasure! When we go to the zoo each year, Abbygale always gets a new stuffed animal. It is always a new animal that she doesn't already have and preferably one that we saw that day. She got a polar bear this time of course. Here she is getting ready to leave the zoo with her new animal.
Just in case anybody is interested, Riverbanks Zoo is an awesome zoo and great for young kids. The NC Zoo has A LOT of walking but is good, just tiring. The Knoxville Zoo was really good too. It was easy to navigate but you had to pay to park where we don't at the other two. Side Note: We have never been there but the Atlanta Zoo just had a new Panda Cub on Saturday. This gives them a total of 4 Pandas. We are trying to get a trip together to go but if anybody has been there, please let me know how it was. Thanks!