The whole reason for the trip to CA was for our family to meet up at my brother's house and spread my mom's ashes in the ocean. That was what she always wanted. So, among all the fun we were having, we still had to face our last good-bye to mom. But, after going back and forth about where and how to do it, we decided to go to the local beach near my brother's house. My mom always told my dad that after she died, she would come back as a seagull and watch over him (and poop on his head if he looked at another woman). Well, the evening we gathered to spread her ashes was quite memorable. We got into a circle and were holding hands. Dad read something he wrote and David walked out into the water to spread the ashes. Lots of tears were shed. As he was doing this a bird flew by and one of the kids said, "Oh look, there is Grandma." But, we said no that it was just a pelican. And then, Jackie looked back at the box up on the beach where mom's ashes were and there was a seagull pecking at it. We all screamed and ran up to it...turns out, the seagull opened the box and took out the little silver hanging pendant with mom's name on it. It flew into the air, circled around us with the pendant in its mouth, and flew off! NO KIDDING! It was the only seagull around, there was no food nearby, and it circled us! After all the tears we shed while we were gathered in our circle, there was almost a sigh of relief...and laughter! The kids all started running around saying "that was Grandma!" It was just a perfect ending (or beginning) for mom.
