I painted and Tom installed a couple of letters in Aaron’s Garden. They resemble the tattoo I got back in 2014 on a night out with Timothy and The Brides. Rhonda told me if I’d get it, she’d pay for it, because she knew how much it meant to me. I’ve never regretted it.
Here’s the more colorful version that is now on the wall over Aaron’s Garden.
Subtle from a distance, but our way to show this little section of Houndstooth Hall is a place to remember him.
Today is the thirtieth anniversary of our friend Steve’s death. I remember that I once intended to get stones etched with the names of those friends we lost to HIV/AIDS for one of our flower beds at The Compound. It was the bed where we had the small sculptures of the Winnie the Pooh characters, and I called it Pooh Garden. Those were damaged long ago by time and weather and are gone, but I started considering smaller rocks, maybe even painted stones, that we could place in Aaron’s Garden. It’s something for me to think about, and maybe enlist some friends for help. A creative effort that becomes communal is my favorite kind.
Oh Becky, I am so glad your blog is back. I have missed it. I love reading your stories as you have such a wonderful way of expressing yourself. But most of all I love reading and seeing pictures of Aaron and his garden. It makes me cry every time but I wouldn’t change it. I know he would love it as well.
I found an email that he sent me so long ago. He was standing on the counter calling Timmie, his little dog and Timmie being a really special animal couldn’t figure out where he was. That dog loved Aaron so much and Aaron loved him as well. Hearing Aaron’s voice, although just one word was so special to me. I think I must have played it 100 times.
OK, so that is another reason I love your blog, selfish as it is, it gives me a time and place to reflect on him, his love for the Cochrane’s and have a good cry.
Thank you for creating and looking after his garden.
Love you,
Lisa
I have also always loved your tattoo.
I’m so grateful you saw this post and let me know. I do this for any of us who want a place where we can remember, laugh, cry. I mean the garden and posting about the garden. But I especially do it for you and David, who deserve to think and talk about your son when you need or want to.
Sometimes people think they’re sparing someone when they usher them away from painful memories, but it also means they don’t indulge them in the rest of their memories. The love, laughter, joy, even the mundane, which is all part of the life shared with one we loved, still love.
Thank you for knowing how important that it is to talk, laugh, smile and even cry about those you loved. It is an impossible task to be asked to lose someone to death but to lose them from our memories would be another death to my our souls.
Thank you
Love you