Celebrating Ayrie

Nora has said the 16th of February should be used to celebrate Ayrie’s life, which is exactly what Richard and I will do today.

Since he’s passed we continue, like so many that loved him, to have tearful nights, car rides and tearful runs.  Before the cold weather hit D.C. we did one, final 5k for the season.  I choked across the finish line, as I remembered the joyful way Ayrie would run.  He almost sauntered when he ran, it was as if he was so proud of his stride, proud of the distance he could go.

Nora’s sister has asked that we remember a particular memory or recent dream we’ve had of Ayrie. I’ll share one memory about one of the first times we baby-sat the boys.

Ayrie went through a period of jumping on the bed…although do kids every grow out of that?! The first couple times we watched the boys he would run straight for Nora’s bedroom and jump on her bed.  Richard and I would take turns playfully lifting him up in the air and “dropping” him onto the bed.  His infectious laughter would follow.  My arms would tire before Richard’s, so Richard would keep going with the game.

This one night, in particular, Ayrie was wearing sweat pants that were too big for him.  He would literally jump out of them with each bounce.  Being that it was one of the first times we were watching him, we didn’t want to look like slacking sitters letting Ayrie run around in just his underwear.  Ayrie thought it was a game when Richard would try to get the pants back on.  Sometimes he would stop and appease Richard only to immediately bounce right out of them.  I think Ayrie was trying to tell us, “hey, we’re friends now, we can hang-out in our underwear!”

So if you too want to remember Ayrie today, my silly advice is to act like kid!

• Hang out in your underwear (when appropriate
• jump on a bed, go for a run and run with ease, with carelessness
• hug people around the neck (oh how I miss his hugs)
• let someone new into your life
• get messy (cook a crazy meal, paint, finger paint)
• let your siblings know you love them
• eat yogurt (I always remember Ayrie and Shiya eating lots of yogurt for whatever reason)
• watch a Britney Spears video on YouTube (such great musical taste!)

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