claudsspot: When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.

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When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure. ~Author Unknown

September 13 the anniversary of my Kara leaving this earth for eternity. That day I was forever changed. I am not the only mother who has lost a child. Many of us are in that ‘club’. No one wants to become a member but even as I type this blog, another member is initiated. I do not know that new member but I know her pain.

Today, a dear and special man, Ron Jones is being remembered and then laid to rest. He was not my child but he was a grandfather, father, husband and a friend to many who knew him. God created him, his life was valuable and he cared for others less fortunate. He is now gone from this earth, and those who knew him and loved him do not want him forgotten. Why, because life is important, valuable and a gift. All life should be given value and hope not just here in the United States. Life something for us to treasure.

When you lose someone you love you desire that they are not forgotten. Tombstones serve that purpose and they have for time memorial. Family names thread one generation to another. Family trees and genealogies are treasured as we try to figure out if we are related to someone important or very bad.

But I imagine each of us want something more than a tombstone as a remembrance. I imagine most of us want more than a bouquet of flowers that wither and die as our remembrance in flowers is left at our grave. Deep down we want some legacy, some story, and some ‘thing’ that we can to pass on to our children or grand children. Our brief time on earth (and it is brief) should be remembered at least a generation or two. Unmarked graves are sad statements of a life lived. No one cared. All of us want someone to care.

As I ‘blog’ my journeys in the Western Provence of Zambia, I keep a resounding message and perhaps even today a resounding plea to help give life to those children who do not have to die early or to live poorly, because they have bad water or very little water. We cannot control the number of our days but we can bless others who cannot help themselves by providing clean and accessible water. Just simple, plain, clean water.

As you drink your clean, sweet, fresh water today, will you think about helping one or perhaps a village who have never tasted it. http://www.handsofhopeonline.org/giftcards.asp#well As you think about how to honor some one you love that you want to be remembered for a long time, give a gift of water in their name. As you turn on your faucet to brush your teeth, wash your hands, fill your very large bath tub consider blessing someone who would be thrilled to just fill their bucket with clean fresh water. The giving on our end is quite simple the gift of fresh clean water in the Western Provence of Zambia is life changing and giving.

As we continue to miss Kara and to keep her memory alive, we will work to place wells. The well in her honor is blessing a village and giving kids health, something she longed for. Each well placed whether it has Kara's name on it or it is a collective effort of many, the well is a gift of life that gives and gives and keeps people alive with hope.