As far as new things go, this weekend was unique!  As a last goodbye to my brother Jon (who died in December at 57,) we could be found launching my brother’s ashes from his favorite mountain.
When I say launching, don’t imagine that we opened an urn and gently spread his ashes down the mountain—nothing quite so serene and serious. Â Instead, we threw biodegradable packets of my brother’s ashes like we were trying to get distance on a baseball!
Well before we got together to do this, research was done and it was discovered that because of an updraft on the mountain, other people had ashes blow back into their faces…..so we came prepared. His ashes were sorted into biodegradable packets that looked like larger sized snaps or poppers that we used to throw at each other as kids.  The snaps of my childhood would make a cracking or exploding sound when they hit a hard surface and we would shriek with laughter while trying to throw them at each other’s legs.  It seemed fitting that this was how we said our final goodbyes as we threw these packets down the mountain and watched them explode when they hit a tree.
It won’t be the last time I think of my brother. Â But as I think back on our childhood and all the laughter, tears, anger and just plain stupid stuff….I will also remember that we threw his ashes like a snap at Mother Nature’s leg. Â And it was perfect.
In What Happened to Christmas, I wrote about my brother’s death.
