Monday, May 4, 2009

Video...and a happy birthday to Jean

Today is Jean's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEAN!)

I can't believe how much time has passed since the last post on Steven's blog. Life still is surreal, and I guess it is difficult to post because most days are incredibly tough to get through as is. However, it is my goal to post all those updates I or anyone else desires to share, so here is the first of many overdue updates. For Steven, I do it.

For Jean I do it today. I know she isn't much of a birthday celebrator, but she deserves a happy day. Each day we face has a memory of the same day one year ago. Sometimes it is hard to find the happiness in those memories. I so badly want her to think of happy memories today and to have a happy birthday. So here's a memory for her:

I believe a year ago today, give or take a day, Jean, Steven and I watched from the hospital a documentary called "King Corn". Most of you can probably still picture Steven's energy when he talked about something he was passionate about. His blue eyes sparkled, his hands and arms moved to the beat of every syllable he spoke, and he talked VERY LOUDLY. I loved it. He would get so fired up over the most seemingly random issues. Corn was one of them. High fructose corn syrup was a bad word to Steven. Grocery shopping took twice as long because he'd dissect the ingredients of everything, getting quite outraged to learn something was corn based. Watching this video with him is a happy memory. Now that I think about it, it was rude not to let Jean pick the video, considering it was her day...though, that would have left 2/3rds of us painfully pretending to enjoy a Mel Brooks film.

A few nights ago I came across Dwight Yoakam playing at the Grand Ole Opry. Steven loved Dwight, "the man who brought honky tonk back to country music," as they introduced him, as well as Dwight the actor. When Dwight played Honky Tonk Man, I thought of the video from Steven's rosary. I've wanted to post the video for those who didn't get to see it or who might want to watch it again. I hope it brings back happy memories for all who watch it, and especially today, for Jean. He would want you to think of the thousands of happy days he had with you.

-Jenny