This was a day while on our trip that I wanted to remember all the while a day I tried to cancel because I knew I just couldn’t go through with it. But, thanks to someone special and very dear to me who talked me into going, I finally decided to follow through with it….a private sail for 3 hours with my girls to spread a small amount of dads ashes and to reflect on how much of a wonderful person he was.
I had planned a week prior to booking our trip to San Diego this memorable sail trip and to actually follow through with this special day. A day to spread a small amount of Dad out into the Pacific Ocean since he was not there physically with us..healthy, happy and alive as we all knew him. This was a day I knew Dad would have been with there with me and his granddaughters. Dad always enjoyed being with them and would have been on this trip with us if life had not taken a different turn for him.
He would have loved the extreme peace at sea that enveloped us all as well as the memorable time with his grand children experiencing this for their first time all the while, sharing stories with them on how their mom was as a young child on these yearly family vacations to San Diego. He would have sat beside me on deck, placed his arm around my shoulders and said he was proud of me and how much he loved me and my girls. He would have fought with me over the box of salt water taffy while shaking his head and laughing as I was handed my glass of wine but telling me how much I deserved it.
Although he was not there physically, he was there very much at heart and a very peaceful memory was created….I just didn’t know he was going to be as vivid as he was, that day out at sea….
Three hours of sailing was the duration of this time and I knew only 5 minutes would be spent spreading dad. I put it off but knew it had to be done soon as the captain was headed back to shore. We had an hour to go and I finally asked the captain if he would kindly take pictures as we were doing this. For a man to take on a 60 foot sailboat alone to leave the wheel and all 3 sails to take pictures was at his call. It had to be done at the perfect time when winds were calmer so the ship would not tip. I understood and said we would be up front and ready when he was. The front sail flew up and the ship seemed steady. A few moments later the captain appeared, took my camera and said, “Whenever you are ready ma’am, I am”.
So I took a deep breath and lined my girls up with the wind at our backs at the edge of the front of the boat. We were all silent and very much in disbelief that we were about to cradle a small handful of ‘Grandpa’….only to let him go seconds later…
At the completion of spreading dad, I immediately looked out to the shoreline for a landmark to remember where he would be at. Yes, I was given the coordinates, but I needed a visual.
It wasn’t but a second later the girls and I all looked up to see this amazing happening….a smoke trail plane had just finished the ‘U’ in I [heart] U up in the sky. We had not heard the plane prior to this, usually you can hear the propellers as they fly over but there was nothing….only silence. This was directly above the boat where the girls and I were standing to place dad out at sea.
I have chills writing this as much as I did when seeing it. I quickly grabbed my camera for this picture. A few moments after, the words disappeared into the wind. I am not a believer in ‘signs’ but this could not have happened in any other way, at any other time than exactly when I know Dad wanted to tell us this….
Rice's World 
