On the Grassy Slope

As I headed over the causeway this morning, I looked as I always do to my right at the sunrise over the open fields. And today in the tule fog that draped low to the ground I had a vision of Aiyana in a beautiful handcrafted wooden boat.

She was in a white gauzy dress and her hair was loose in long curls that draped down her back and over her shoulders. It was brushed back from her face as the boat moved with the current away from me and I could see her clearly looking this way and that at the gentle weeping willows and grassy moss on the shore dotted with wildflowers.

The fog hung low at the banks but the waterway was clear. Aiyana was warm and happy as she floated toward the distant arched gate which was coming into view. And as I watched her get closer, the beautiful gates gently opened with a golden glow and I could hear the most beautiful fairy music playing from no instrument I had ever known.

There were swirls of loving spirits in beautiful pastel colors assembled by the shore as I watched her pass through the gate. Her Grandfather's mother was there, and my parents, beautiful spirits that wrapped around her and helped her to the bank. She sprung onto the grass solidly on two feet. Her face lit up as she discovered her hand and foot healthy and whole and I watched her begin to run with Ginger barking joyously at her side. My last glimpse was of the gentle gate closing and a great celebration of love being heard throughout Heaven.
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We were urgently summoned to the hospital early this morning after learning that Aiyana was hemmoraging from her brain. There were so many things that could have gone wrong but amazingly we were not prepared for them to.

Her family spent hours and hours with her, memorizing the pink nail polish on her small nails and her beautiful hair that her mother had just the other day washed and braided. Her dollie was tucked into her side under the prayer blanket with her name and our minister was there.

In the quiet of our individual prayers to Aiyana and God, I told her the story of her travels and that she would love it there. I told her it is very hard for us to give back a gift from God because we would never be ready, but we had to share. And I told her she is magic in our hearts and our lives and that will never change. We will be together again, I promised, and when we do we will look for her on the grassy slope just on the other side of those golden gates.

And then our beautiful Aiyana was gone.