Today is July 12, the first day of my reservation at Casa Del Mar, at Ormond Beach, FL, where Christopher and I had vacationed for years. He loved that place. Two years ago, we were able to take his buddy, Jeremiah Elliott, and they had such a great time (although you can’t tell it from the picture)!

When we started going to Ormond, we used a timeshare the my brother owned for years and never really used. We used it two years in a row and then I traded it in to upgrade to a points-based time share so that we had more options and could go to a larger room (this was a fixed week, fixed unit situation and he was clearly growing out of sleeping with mom!) The next two years we stayed at Casa Del Mar. Then I tried to get adventuresome and switch accomadations; Christopher was not happy. He had found what he liked and there was no reason to change it, but, having no choice, he went along with me.

It was a disaster. I spoke to the people and they agreed to move us back to the Casa Mel Mar, putting us in a room better than we had ever had! Needless to say, we returned there every year thereafter and I never lived it down!

Just two years ago, I acquired additional points that enabled us to get a huge two bedroom unit on the top floor. So last summer, we enjoyed that he he was living large! Ms Lisa (as Christopher always called Husley), joined us last year and we experienced some new things in the area, most notable, we climbed to the top of a lighthouse at the end of the island. It was so fun to share this with Lisa so that we can enjoy this fond memory of a great young man.

So here I am sitting in Cape Town South Africa, and I’d give anything to be with Christopher in the same town, at the same condo, doing the same things that we have done the previous seven or eight years – just the way he liked it.

Who’d have thunk it. . . .