A visit from the Easter Bunny

I got home last night, after a 14 hour work day, and there was a box on my front porch..  inside the box were some small things, an Easter basket and a packet of photos.

The park will be open on Easter, so I’m not able to go home.. glad the Easter Bunny thought of me, but it was bittersweet.

 As I stared at the plastic eggs in the Easter Basket I thought of last Easter. Kerrie and I dying Easter Eggs, while Mom, Kerrie and I sang along to the Sound of Music on TV. We were so happy that night. I looked at the Jelly Beans and I thought about Kerrie sneaking the jellybeans out of her basket and popping them in her mouth…. and then I thougth of all of us at dinner.. Kerrie with her cottage cheese and Boost and all our plates piled high with too much food.. Kerrie looking at her plate and saying, “I think I’ll have ham.”  It was the first time, in a long time, she had anything really solid to eat. I was terrified she’d choke, but ham was her favorite.. so I wasn’t going to deny her.

With all that running through my head I just couldn’t do much with the Easter Basket, so I set it aside. Maybe on Sunday I will eat some jelly beans for Kerrie.. but I don’t want to die eggs and I can’t bear to see the Sound of Music.

Then I went to the packet of photos. It was pictures Kerrie had taken of us when we took our trip to California. Pictures of us at Alcatraz, pictures of the seals she couldn’t wait to see, pictures of us in Monterey, pictures in L.A, pictures in Hollywood.  That was the first and only trip we took just the two of us.. we had planned to go back.. and we’d planned so many others.

It had been such a long day, and I was so tired, but I sat staring at those pictures forever.  Getting ready to head home now, after another long day, but will probably look at the pictures again.. and maybe even eat a jellybean.

And in Kerrie’s favorite words to say at Easter… “Thank you Easter Bunny.. Bwak.. Bwak…”