In an email to her mom…Anita wrote:
4/23/04
Ben did the most amazing thing this morning … he was awake for about 10 or 15 minutes before Julia. When Julia woke up she yelled out so we would know she was awake. Ben walked into the bedroom, took her hand to help her up, and they held [...]
Penny turned three earlier this month. Her mother died when she was one and a half. It’s made me think a lot about time and lifetimes.
In Anita’s journal, under the heading Mental Models >>> Family, Anita wrote important things about her family. About Ben she said:
May 25, 2006
- Ben is everything I wanted in a son physically – a strong, handsome black boy.
- He is also sweet, caring and intuitive.
- He is really tuned in to others’ feelings
- It is [...]
Anita died August 21st, 2009. Over the next several days, scores of people came to the viewing and funeral. Still, many more could not make the trip that would have liked to. By the day of the funeral, I knew that I would make a trip to visit these people, located mainly in Nebraska, when [...]
by Ben Schick (3rd grade)
“It’s a girl!” yelled my uncle from downstairs. Man, “I wanted a brother!” I said. Before I got to school my dad called, “I’m sending pictures of her,” he said. After that, I showed Mrs. Fenstermaker, my 1st grade teacher, the pictures. On the bus ride home I couldn’t wait until I [...]
In late February of this year - after Penelope’s birthday – Anita suspected she was pregnant again. She had a great intuition in general and had never been wrong about being pregnant. Nonetheless, she sent me to the store to get a pregnancy test. She took it but could not stay in the bathroom to wait for [...]
Beyond The Gate
On earth we don’t understand
Why babies have to die
Their little lives are taken
And our painful cry is “Why?”
As we endure the pains of life
No other pain compares
A parent weeping for a child
Just briefly it was theirs
For reasons we don’t understand
Their little lives are taken
And we cry out to God above
“Why must I be [...]
Why?
Why is it so hard to find good friends?
And when you do find them why is it so hard to keep them?
Aren’t we all looking for the same thing?
Someone you can tell anything to, and know its safe with them.
Someone who understands who you are, and won’t try and change you.
Someone who loves you even [...]
Another journal that Anita kept was one about things the kids did. She only wrote about 10 entires each over the course of two years, but they are really meaningful entires and I think the kids will treasure them forever. Here is one of the entires from Ben’s journal.
7/10/06 11:06 pm
I came home late tonight [...]
Today, I got mad. Why? WHY WHY WHY? Why Peter?
My mindful self knows that Anita did great things on this earth. She touched many people. She did God’s work and burned her candle at both ends for the short time she was here. I know that she did her work, but then she was done [...]