A Memorable Journey

On 1/24/2016, my son passed away from a massive heart attack at the age of 40, never having the chance to fulfill his dream of visiting Ireland.

When I shared this with my youngest daughter, she suggested we visit Ireland in his honor. 

And so we visited Ireland for 12 days going from Dublin to Belfast, enjoying the typical sites, learning about the history, culture, music, visiting Ireland’s oldest college, Trinity College Dublin and meeting up with friends we only knew through the internet until then.

A trip to Dublin wouldn’t be complete without learning the history of whiskey and beer.

We learned to pour a perfect pint at the Guiness Academy in the Guiness Storehouse. Later that same day we toured the Whiskey Museum where we competed in creating a new cocktail. Ours won for the best name: Herbert’s Honor

My son loved prayer beads, so we left a prayer bead everywhere we visited.

What are prayer beads?

Many religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, Umbanda, Islam, Sikhism, the Baha’i Faith, and some Christian denominations, use prayer beads—strings of beads—to keep track of repeated prayers, chants, or mantras. He had bought strings of wooden ones to give family and friends.

So I cut a prayer bead strand and put the loose beads in a sandwich bag.

When we’d visit a park, garden, lake, cliff, or bridge, I’d plant or toss a bead there and whispered to him about it.

It was helpful to take part in a grief support group after he passed.

But I wasn’t able to write about his passing until much later at https://www.florabrown.com/blog/a-script-of-grief