Since the loss of our beautiful brown eyed boy, I have made a promise to myself that I live out the rest of my life in ways that would make him proud. I talk about him often and own the bad days and the tears. I am proud of the tears because it means I have loved and lost. I am capturing our lives through the lens of Jacob’s camera…so we are seeing the world through the eyes of my child. I hope he will see all that I capture. It is my dad’s 80th birthday today and we had a beautiful family gathering, showering those we love with love. My nephew James wasn’t present as he’s still holidaying overseas so we felt his absence just like Jacob. We took family photos with Jacob’s stand out cut out again today so he’s forever present in all we do. My mum even wiped his mouth with a serviette as something had stuck on it from last time we got him out of the box. We explored the creek behind my sister Trisha’s house and saw an eel and lizards and sailed floating leaves along the current with my girls and nieces. Jacob was mentioned in my dad’s poem that I wrote for him to commemorate his special birthday day. I mentioned how Jacob would want us to live out the rest of our lives.
Happy 80th birthday dad x

Today you celebrate your 80th year

30th October a warm sunny day.

A time to spend with family and friends

A perfect chance for us to say

Glad to see you here today

As you puzzle in the sun

Doing crosswords and soduku

Checking over twice – you won

Sharkies won for us this year

Go the black white and blue

Glad we saw them win the final

Followers through and through

You scared us all a few months ago

When you became unwell

A hospital trip was needed

All good now’s a better story to tell

But life has given us lemons

And to taste a bitter pill

But we can make us some lemonade

To drink and take our fill

We are strong together

In everything we do

Despite what life’s thrown at us

We see another view

Jacob would want us all to be strong

In the ways we live our life

Honouring him in the ways we live it

Through triumphs and strife

Nobody saw that was coming

Stephen’s heart was nearly shattered

We need to keep our circle of life

As family that’s always mattered

Keeping loved ones together

As the leader of the pack

What a big role to fill

Trying to keep things on track

So as you celebrate one more year

A gift denied to some

We all should be thankful

And be blessed with many more to come.

So as we enjoy another day together

We won’t forget to smile

See miracles in life everyday

As we walk our own life’s mile

Our family is like music

With notes low and high

It’s always a beautiful song

To sing and get you by.

But the song for today

Is happy birthday your day is here

Time to spend it with those you love

Hip hip hooray we’ll cheer.

While you sit outside in the garden

And look around the view

As you spy a little butterfly

It’s Jacob wishing you happy birthday too.

We saw a black and white butterfly in amongst the trees and flowers.