Comforting

DDWOctober2013

This is our guest room. When Sumner was a little girl it was her bedroom, then when she was in high school she moved to a room on the lower level that had been finished off. One year ago today, she moved back home after being gone for 8 months. She had agreed to go to an outpatient rehabilitation program, said she was ready to take her life back, get back to college. So Jon and I got her old room ready. We brought her bed up, some of her artwork, lamps, TV, makeup and mirror. She was not happy to give up the privacy of her downstairs bedroom, but she was excited about how the new/old room looked and willing to go along with it. We left her clothes downstairs in the hope that she would sort through them and bring what she wanted up. She only spent two nights in this room. On the third night she overdosed and was gone.

Jon and I have always been glad that she was at home in her own room with her dog, Myles at her side when that happened. For some reason since she passed Jon, Logan, Myles and myself find it comforting to just sit in the comfy chair in this room. Logan brought his XBox in and plays video games. I guess there is a feeling of closeness to her here, even though we feel her always and everywhere. A feeling of her better days and innocence.

We are almost at the one year mark and for the most part we celebrate her life and hold her happy memories close. We will travel to NJ this weekend to be with family, have a barbecue and send lanterns up with little notes attached in her honor. Also, a good friend of hers had a baby on Sunday night and she named her Juliana Sumner-Marie. So honored.