Saying Farewell to a Loved One

It was a beautiful ceremony – the burial at sea – but it was nail biting up until the day it occurred. My father-in-law wanted to have his ashes scattered at sea, so we took him back to California which was where he last saw the ocean four years ago.

Now, if you’ve paid any attention to the news then you know that California has had some atypical weather to say the least. I spent weeks monitoring the weather in case we had to change our date which we did one day before we arrived and even then prayers were said that the day we changed to wouldn’t be rained out. Family and friends came together from four states, England and Canada. It rained EVERY day we were there but on the day that mattered! The sun actually came out a bit that day.

So very thankful!

If you’ve never experienced a burial at sea, it is a beautiful thing but if you are like me and one other family member, take your anti-nausea medication early and maybe even double it. Yeah…two of us got seasick and I have a bruise on my leg from not having sea legs and bumping into something on the boat. But I didn’t have to lean over the side and didn’t turn too green. Because of the recent storms the water was choppy at times with water that wasn’t as clear as normal, so the captain took us four miles instead of the usual two miles out into the Pacific.

After we returned to the harbor (we were all amazed how the captain perfectly backed his boat into his spot) there was much ginger ale consumed at the restaurant by several of us; it and some food helped. Now it’s time to process things and deal with the next stages of emotions. Hopefully I will be back to at least doing the feathery Friday posts next week.

Teri

Oceanside Harbor – Sea Star was our boat

Pulling out of the harbor – Starboard side

A group of sea lions on their platform in the harbor

Almost to our destination, we passed some rocks with Brown Pelicans, Western Gulls and Double Crested Cormorants

Floral farewells

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