I sat in the sunshine by the community pool and I overheard several sweet little voices call out, “Watch, Papa, watch.” This universal call of a child reminded me of all the times parents watch their children.
For mothers, this watching began the moment she found out about the pregnancy. She watched the foods she ate and she watched with a little nervousness for all the issues in the pregnancy books.
Then the precious child arrived and the watching intensified. She even found herself watching the child breathe as he slept. She continued to watch him as he grew.
The child grew older and sometimes she watched him struggle with adult issues. Things may not always have gone as we planned, but we continued to watch our child go forth in life.
We happily took on our tasks as parents and looked ahead to the day when we will one day be watching our grandchildren grow. Then in one horrible moment our world changed forever. Our child died. At first we felt that we no longer had a role in our child’s life.
Then the day arrived when we came to realize that our deceased child would always be a part of who we are. Things are different and we have a new normal, but the love continues and now we watch with our hearts. We watch for pennies, rainbows, birds, butterflies and signs of our forever connection.
Debra Reagan
In Loving Memory of Clint Reagan
March 30, 2014
Oh my word – I have been watching for signs from heaven and on the way down to Port Elizabeth, South Africa to pack up my deceased 25 year old daughters flat, we saw the most majestic African fish eagle sitting high up on the top of a tree. I just knew deep inside it was a sign for me to know Kim was watching us from the place God had prepared for her. A week after she died, I was sitting reading emails on my laptop in the dining room when I caught a movement out the corner of my eye and sure enough it was a Paradise Fly Catcher in all its glory feasting on a cloud of flying insects in the garden, he stayed around almost the whole morning. It was truly heart warming because Kim loved birds and often used to tell me about the ones she saw on campus ( built on a nature reserve!)