His Spirit Visited Me

Larry died on November 13, 2018, at 4:45 am. On Sunday, December 16, 2018, as I was preparing to go to church (alone!), I noticed as I ate my breakfast in my living room chair that a plant on display had been moved from its position of the previous day. 

This basket of plants was sent to me by my dear cousin Barbara Doying following Larry's death. I was always careful to place it directly in the center of the seat of this stool because I'm OCD about things like spacing and placement of objects and Larry was very particular about things being straight and in balance.

This is what I saw that morning. The plant was moved to the left of the stool, almost to the point of falling off! It had also been turned so the bow was on the right front side, not in the middle as in the photo above. You can see that the handle is moved from its original position the night before. I know that Larry did this to get my attention, knowing I'd notice this change. And I would know he'd been to visit me on the one-month anniversary of his leaving me. 

I was dressed and ready for church as I put on my watch. Instead of seeing the display time of 10:15 am, it said 4:45 am and the date displayed "13" instead of 16. Remember I said Larry died at 4:45 am on Nov. 13th. Again I believe he was telling me that he'd been visiting me during the night. He knew I'd get the message when I saw the plant and the time/date change on my watch. 

At Christmas time I put red and green Hershey kisses on my coffee table. I filled the bowl before I drove to my son's house to enjoy Christmas Eve with my family. I'm neat and filled the bowl leaving nothing on the table surrounding the bowl. This is what I found when I returned home that night. 

Notice the little green "kiss" that was beside the bowl. I think Larry left me a KISS for Christmas.

In the weeks to follow, I also noticed these visits. As I was dusting my nightstand, I moved the photo of me and Larry. Under the frame, I found this little feather. Larry always believed random feathers told us our loved ones had been present for a visit. Whenever he found one he'd leave it somewhere in the house for me, with a note that always said "I Love You!"

The final indication I noticed of Larry's visit would not have been obvious to anyone else. But this is how I'd arranged the things on my coffee table.

I observed it daily as I sat in my recliner. The white rock was one I'd found in my son's front yard, and since I've always considered Matt as "My Rock" it was meaningful and on display right in front of me. The little green bowl was filled with candy, at my easy reach, and the white coffee cup on the left was a gift from Matt. When he gave it to me it was filled with chocolate Hershey kisses and the cup says "A Bunch of  Kisses for Mom". 

As I sat down in my recliner one evening, this is what I noticed.

Items had been rearranged and coasters had been moved to the opposite end of the table from where I'd put them. I ALWAYS kept the coasters at the far end in front of the TV, never in front of me. But here they were. Since I lived alone, I knew that nobody else had been in my house and moved things. I knew Larry had come to visit and left a little sign of his presence, where I'd notice. I was comforted and at the same time, quite amused!

One Final Wish Delivered

When we moved into our house in November 2016, this was Larry's recliner in our living room. 

As his health declined, he experienced difficulty in getting out of his recliner. We were given the gift of this power recliner by our dear friends, the Johnsons. In the photo below you can see Larry seated in his new favorite chair.

The recliner that had been Larry's became mine as he adjusted to his new "electric chair", as I called it. 

One of the instructions Larry gave me 4 days before his passing was to give this power recliner to someone who could use it in our church congregation. 

Earlier this week that wish was fulfilled as the recliner was given to a Smith family, friends of ours from Church. Mrs. Smith sat in front of us nearly every Sunday for 22 years. Now she can sit in Larry's chair. I know he's happy about this!

In its place is "my" recliner that I sat in for the 20 years we lived in our previous house. Actually, the chairs have switched places from the way they were arranged in the second photo above when we first moved into this house. 

When my son helped move the rocker/recliner into its new location, he saw me take a picture of it and he asked "Is this going to be another blog post, Mom?" Yes, it surely is, Matt! 

My husband's grave one year later

To publicly acknowledge Larry's passing on November 13, 2018, I placed this "bough basket" on his grave Wed, Nov 13, 2019.

It featured a small stuffed bird that my friend placed in the bird feeder that was gifted to his gravesite by his daughter Ruthie Brady. The bird feeder is especially meaningful because it's made from a 1950 license plate from Pennsylvania, which was Larry's home state of birth. And it's significant because it was Larry's daily habit to feed the birds in our back yard. He loved to care for them.

The beautiful Christmas solar candles were placed at her father's grave by Ruthie Brady, accompanied by her husband, Brandon Brady, who was very devoted to his father-in-law Larry Jamison.

Thank you, Ruthie and Brandon, for your continuous attention to the final resting place of your devoted father and my loving husband!

Happy 73rd Birthday

The last birthday we were able to celebrate with Larry was his 72nd. His children joined us for dinner at The Village Inn. 

 Larry and Becky Jamison

 Larry Jamison and daughter Ruthie Jamison Brady

 Larry and daughter Rachael Jamison

 Larry and granddaughters Emily and Olivia Brady

 Larry and future daughter-in-law Mindy Dow

Larry with son Jeremy and son-in-law Brandon Brady.

The most memorable birthday Larry celebrated was Oct. 11, 1996 as his family and friends gathered in our home. His best friend at the time was Jennifer Jordan and she gifted him with 50 gifts since it was his 50th birthday party.

Your loving family wishes you a Happy 73rd Birthday this year, Larry.

The Laptop's gone, but the contents bless me

This week it came to my attention that my friend Dhiana needed a computer. Since Larry's Toshiba laptop was still in my possession, but not being used, I gladly offered it to Dhiana. I worked 3 hours Monday evening transferring all the documents and photos to the Western Digital Passport portable hard drive, pictured above. The laptop had Windows 10 on it, as well as Microsoft Office. 

Today I received this email from Dhiana: "Loving my computer! I love the keyboard. It's like playing the piano for me. Thank you so much, my friend!"

I'm happy that Dhiana has the computer and even happier that I still have possession of all of Larry's files. Now to find the time to sort and organize them. That will take me weeks! But it will help me feel like I'm interacting with my husband, as his personality is so evident in the things he saved and the way he chose to store them on his computer. I look forward to spending the time with him!!!

We Fell in Love on the Dance Floor

One of my favorite love songs is "Could I Have This Dance?" by Anne Murray. It has such special meaning to me, and here's why. 

I met Larry Jamison as we attended a local Divorce Support Group in July, 1991. I'd been divorced 18 months and had attended it through the year of 1990. In July of '91, I decided to go to the meetings again, as they were studying a new book on the subject of becoming a healthy "Single" and I knew I'd feel "safe" socializing among the attendees. Attending that night for the first time was Larry, as he'd been recently divorced. One of the activities encouraged by the hosts of the group was to attend a "Divorce Recovery Workshop" sponsored by First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs. Many of the members of our local group attended the 7-week workshop. We became good friends with many good people, with whom we'd socialize after the meetings.

One very special evening several of us attended a local establishment in Colorado Springs, Larry's recent hometown, for refreshments and fun. Dancing was available and Larry asked me to dance to my all-time favorite "Unchained Melody", described in this way in Wikipedia: "Of the hundreds of recordings made, the Righteous Brothers' version in July 1965, with a solo by Bobby Hatfield, became the jukebox standard for the late 20th century. Hatfield changed the melody and many subsequent covers of the song are based on his version. The Righteous Brothers recording achieved a second round of great popularity when featured in the film Ghost in 1990. In 2004, it was Number 27 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema."

Well, it was while dancing to that love song that evening that I fell in love with Larry Jamison. Larry had been taught to do ballroom dancing by his mother while he was still a pre-teen. His father was an Air Force Officer so the family attended many social functions in Officers Clubs around the world. I had learned to do ballroom dancing through my Junior High and High School school years while enrolled in the Arthur Murray Ballroom Dance classes taught by Hazel (Mrs. Herb) Smith in Great Bend, KS. However, it was not necessary to know formal dance steps as Larry took me in his arms (for the first time) and shared his rhythm and emotion on the dance floor that October in 1991. 
Soon, Anne Murray's hit "Could I Have This Dance" became my second favorite love song because the words were so applicable to my sentiment. 

Wikipedia provides this information about this song: ""Could I Have This Dance" is a song recorded by Canadian country music artist Anne Murray. "Could I Have This Dance" was featured in the 1980 film Urban Cowboy and appeared on both the soundtrack album for that film, as well as on Murray's Greatest Hits compilation, issued in late 1980. It was released in August 1980 and became Anne Murray's fifth number one country hit as a solo artist. The single went to number one for one week and spent a total of ten weeks on the country chart."Could I Have This Dance" was also Anne Murray's tenth Top 40 on the U.S. pop singles chart, hit peaking at number thirty-three.The song was written by Wayland Holyfield and Bob House."

Could I Have This Dance

Anne Murray, Amy Grant

I'll always remember the song they were playin'
The first time we danced and I knew
As we swayed to the music and held to each other
I fell in love with you

Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?
Would you be my partner every night?
When we're together it feels so right
Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?

I'll always remember that magic moment
When I held you close to me
As we moved together, I knew forever
You're all I'll ever need

Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?
Would you be my partner every night?
When we're together it feels so right
Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?

Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?
Would you be my partner every night?
When we're together it feels so right
Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?

Now that Larry is gone from this earthly life, I would add this final verse:
I had this dance for the rest of your life,
You were my partner every night.
When we were together, it felt so right,
I had this dance for the rest of your life.  

Here are just a couple occasions of Larry and I dancing together.

Larry & I dressed appropriately for "Prom Night" at Hot August Nights in Reno, NV in 1999.

Larry & I danced at the wedding dance of Ruth Jamison and Brandon Brady in 2003.

Yes, Larry Jamison, my Love, 
I'll always remember the song they were playin'
The first time we danced and I knew
As we swayed to the music and held to each other
I fell in love with you

Ruthie's Eulogy about her Dad

Dec 3, 2018 Funeral of Larry C. Jamison 

Hello everyone. My name is Ruthie and I'm the youngest of Larry's 6 children. As I stand here I see friends and relatives who have come a great distance to be here for my Dad. I am humbled at how he must have touched your lives.

I could speak today on all of the amazing accomplishments and things that my Dad has done (he was a man who wore MANY hats) but the one that I hold dearest to my heart is remembering my Dad as a family man. My Dad craved his family and always needed to be close, whether it be a simple gesture as to be able to pick up his granddaughters from school to spend an afternoon with them laughing and giggling, indulging in an everyday visit for ice cream only for them to always come home with a secret. Or where it was a giant family dinner or time spent together as a family, with our most cherished moments of a Christmas Eve. (That will never be the same without him). Growing up, I remember my Dad going out of his way to make the simplest of things special. Like Dad knocking at the door, hiding behind a fresh-cut Christmas tree and speaking in a small voice, "I'm Mr. Christmas Tree. Can I come in?" Or making sure he was front and center at a grandchild's choir concert, beaming with pride. (Then letting everyone there know how proud he was). My Dad had a great ability to celebrate you and all your triumphs, and he had an even better ability to catch you when you'd fall. My Dad gave the best advice. He was someone you could always run home to. Even when you didn't want to hear what you should be doing, he was always right in the end. You could even see a simple look if he approved or disapproved. After every talk we'd had about bad things happening, my Dad always said, "Rise above the mire, you're a Jamison and you come from great stock. And if all else fails, channel your inner Irene." And if anyone knows my grandmother, she got things DONE!

My Dad truly cared about and loved people. He enjoyed his employment at Valley View Health Care Center and developed relationships with the residents and staff. He was a man who saw everybody or who they truly were.

My Dad had an amazing sense of humor. He never missed an opportunity to make someone laugh. I'm really going to miss seeing him do doughnuts in his little care in the middle of a packed grocery aisle. I'm going to miss seeing the hundreds of pictures in which my Dad chose to photobomb. He was really a child at heart. His humor rubbed off on all who were around him. No one was upset around Dad for too long.

My Dad has now left us kids with a unique set of skills we will use the rest of our lives. For instance, how to make the perfect glass of chocolate milk and stir the heck out of it without breaking the glass (which he's done more than once). How to "properly" decorate the Christmas tree (stand back and forth, squinting,  checking for holes), only to rearrange every ornament after we'd gone to bed (Sorry to my girls that is a very real skill that I've taken to heart). Dad showed us how to truly love and care about every living thing. To reach out to those in need of a friend, a smile, or a hug, companionship and love. Dad showed us craftsmanship, taking pride in things we worked with. As well as taking pride in who we are and how we conducted ourselves around others. He taught us how to be adventurous, with my brothers sharing a common interest in artifacts, from Indians to gemstones and a love of exploring and the thrill of discovery. He really knew how to "rough it". He taught us to see the beauty in EVERYTHING, even an old hornet's nest. My Dad taught of style and class, as he would say "I'm always dressed to impress", then he'd twist his mustache. He always told us to remember who we are and where we come from and to take pride in that heritage.

I'll close with the words of meg Conely: Now what? What about today as I say goodbye? After all the hugs and embraces from family and friends, after I am finally alone to breathe and gather my thoughts. I'll sit and remember my father absent from distraction and dismay, and I know what I will find. There's a daddy whose body has been taken, but whose heart is near. There is love and the blessing of time given and time taken. There are hope and faith. There is the brush of something greater than you and me, something that carries the smell of stars and the impression of truths straight and gleaming and multi-dimensional. And there in that quiet space is the assurance of a Father's voice, rocking back and forth against my heart, saying "Don't worry, Sweetheart. I am right here. You can do this."

Dad, your love, your patience, your understanding, your wisdom and your amazing sense of humor will live on inside of us forever. You have given us gifts that are more precious than anything in this world. You've loved us from the time you met us, but we have loved you our whole lives. It's not goodbye, but I'll see you later!

Ruthie Jamison Brady

Dec 2018