And the Chimes Ring On

In writing this blog over the past year, I have always tried to keep it light, highlighting the good and fun times in our lives.

Unfortunately, I didn't wake up today in either a light or very fun mood. I am sorry to post that my Uncle Bennett lost his very long fight with cancer yesterday afternoon.

If you remember from last summer (and the photo on the left) Bennett (and my Aunt Diane) came to stay with us last summer for six weeks as he was entering into a bone marrow transplant trial at the National Institutes of Health.

While undergoing two transplants, chemo and scans upon scans, Bennett got out as often as he could to see more of DC, its culture and it's beauty than I have in all the years that I have lived here. Very rarely would a day would go by that we wouldn't come back to about some amazing adventure into the city into some area I had never explored - or passed on a daily basis and never stopped to admired.

And the food. From the day Bennett stepped foot into our kitchen, until he left to start his first transplant, we would come home from work to four and five course meals. Always, healthy and fantastic. He even got Jason to eat beets!

At some point in the course of their stay with us, Bennett and Diane bought us these chimes. Explaining their good karma, we immediately hung them by our garden - to be quickly knocked over on several times by Jason and Hunter. So shortly before Lilah's birth we moved them to this spot on the deck.

This spot found itself to be the perfect spot. In any slight breeze we can hear the chimes ring from anywhere in the house and it is a lovely ring. The chimes are also the one thing that can make Lilah smile when all else fails - she loves their tone and how they move in the air.

Each time they rang I would think about Bennett and hope he was having a good day. This morning when they rang I just sat there and thought about how everyone in some way touches everyone they meet. Bennett touched our lives when we were least expecting it, but in a way we will always remember.