In This Together

I am so glad to read your latest post as Blake is constantly a presence with me regardless of whether it is appropriate or not to share his story. His gift to us, but inspired by you and your husband and daughter, is making us all slow down and actively look for ways, everyday, big or small, to “love” into Blake’s legacy. And God knows, given the divisive times we live in, how important this is for our own sanity and health of the world. Here are just two….

The setting – Madrid (Spain) this summer for a wedding while on a private tour for 7 to the historic towns outside the city: while walking across a highway for a panoramic view of Avilá, the guide was desperately trying to get the attention of our friend who had hired him by yelling her name. I explained she had lost 70% of her hearing in a serious heart operation earlier in the year. He then pulled out a picture of his two year old child, taken that morning, hooked up to tubes, hoses and life support machines while recovering from the same operation. So here he was with us clueless foreigners trying to make extra funds to help support his family (despite being an architect )- I was devastated. at the end of the trip my husband paid a generous tip while I prepared a card with a much larger amount to be used to buy or do something that would make his child happy. I wrote about Blake and told him that this gift was given to his child in honor of Blake’s legacy.

The second was closer to home – a routine mani/pedi in Laguna several weeks ago. I overheard a conversation of the woman next to me relaying how she barely escaped with her life in the fires in Paradise (5 hours driving thru flames, falling power lines and trees). I quietly paid her bill and hugged her as I left telling her I understood her journey as I too barely escaped with my life in a deadly mudslide. As I was hugging her the owner revealed I paid her bill. While not a huge expense she burst into tears “no one has ever done anything like this for me.” All I could do was smile and say to myself, “OK Blake, we got to do this one together!”