Ukiah's Day

It snuck up on me again. It’s not as if I don’t know it’s there, that date, both the dates. Hell the whole Month of April looms large, and yet every year it feels like a sucker punch when it arrives. Leading up to the date, I’m aware of it, vaguely, as it sits there on a calendar mocking me. I’m more prepared than last year, at least I think so, in retrospect.

But it still comes as a nasty surprise, smacking us in the face, the day our son died, followed by the day that marked his birth ten days later. It seems like a cruel joke really, having them so close together, and then again it seems like a blessing. At least the sutures get torn clean off for a relatively manageable amount of time instead of  having them slowly ripped off multiple times a year.

It was still a bit of a shock to realize my husband would be out of town on the fifth. It wasn’t something either of us immediately picked up on when he scheduled the business trip, but it dawned on me that he’d be gone on that day and when I told him via a phone call, it was like all the air got sucked out of the room. Neither of us knew what to say, or could say anything for that matter more than “That sucks.”

I’ll be going to George Mark House tomorrow, as a way of Honoring Ukiah. I’ll visit his tile, find his rock at the remembrance fountain, walk the grounds and try to find some solace and some peace while there, holding my daughter and telling her I love her.

The ideal thing I’d like to have happen is to raise the equivalent of two days care at George Mark House on the two days on which we think of him the most (April 5^th and 15^th). But barring that, the thing that would make me happiest is if we could get George Mark House the recognition it deserved. I’d love for as many people as possible to find out about this great organization and share this incredible organization with as many friends as possible. Blog it, like them on face book, spread the word via twitter, I don’t care how it gets done, I’d just like to see it happen.

Imagine if we were able to get them a bunch of new friends on facebook, or if we could get #GMCH trending on twitter or if The George Mark website got inundated with hits that it almost crashed. Imagine if everyone circulated the New Way Home trailer the way we circulated the KONY2012 video a few months ago. Imagine the difference we could make for that organization and all the people that use and depend on it. That would be incredible, so incredible.