As a young girl, I always dreamed that one day I would travel to France. Since none of my friends or family shared this dream, I realized no-one was responsible for making MY dreams come true. It was up to me to make it happen.
This lesson was taught to me by the way Dave lived his life. Nothing would stop him from experiencing what he wanted to do—even if he had to do it alone. So I concentrated on improving my communication skills and faced my fear of getting lost. That combination was certainly daunting and quite a challenge!
I wanted to combine my long-time wishlist places, but also to recreate my father’s journey in Normandy on D-Day (next post) and make a visit to Claude Monet’s gardens in Giverny. Shortly after Dave’s death, one of Dave’s close friends, Krissy, visited the gardens during her honeymoon. She remembered Dave that day by placing one of his funeral cards under a willow tree in the gardens so I definitely wanted this to be one of the places I visited.
Claude Monet designed and created the beautiful gardens in the rural town of Giverny. The love of his gardens is clearly evident in the lovely water lily paintings and the famous Water Lily Pond, which is pictured above. There were hundreds of varieties of flowers and trees; dahlias, nasturtium, sunflowers, bell flowers, to name a few, but none more beautiful than his famous water lilies. It was here from the bridge at the Water Lily Pond that I sprinkled the tiniest bit of Dave’s ashes. It is probably the most well-known painting by Claude Monet. Whenever I see it now, I think of Dave.
Maybe you will, too.
Leave a Reply