Welcome to JOYFUL REFLECTIONS. Also welcome to JULY!!!! Our Lilies are blooming now... So gorgeous!!! Here is one of my many favorites! Meet DIZZY.

Monday, May 1, 2023

Family Celebration honoring son, Bert, who died on 4/21/23

Bert Wilhite (Being crazy; Picture taken in 2018)
July 18, 1963- April 21, 2023


Hello Blog Friends,  Bert opted to have an outdoor celebration ---and not a traditional morbid and sad service...  It worked out well--and it's the type of 'service' I want when I pass away...

SO----Twenty family members got together on Saturday, April 29, at Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains for a Celebration of Life for Bert...It was awesome and was a time of healing for all of us. We laughed and cried as we told stories about Bert. We also enjoyed a terrific picnic lunch.

We had had rain for the past few days but Saturday was gorgeous. I told my sons that Bert 'sent' us the beautiful weather. I'm sure he enjoyed hearing the stories that we all told!!!! I am so blessed to have a fabulous family --and Saturday was definitely a day of HEALING. Thanks be to God. (The picture was taken about 2018---and I'm sure that expression on his face was him listening to our crazy stories!!! ha)

I was scared when we planned the celebration thinking that it would be too hard for me. HOWEVER --I loved it and it was pure healing for me. Thanks be to a loving God who takes good care of us. AND--knowing that Bert is in heaven which has to be a beautiful place, and knowing that he is now out-of-pain is a blessing.  

Thank You for being so kind and compassionate to me through these past THREE months. Bert had one of the worst kinds of cancer ---so it's a good thing, although I miss him terribly, that he only lived with cancer for those three months...

Love to ALL,

BETSY and GEORGE