A note from Katie

Hi Chris and Lindy,

I wanted to share two things with you. The first is something that
resonated with me the other night and the second is a sad (yet happy)
reality for Josh and I.

On TV the other night was one of my all-time favorite movies: The
Shawshank Redemption. I can almost quote the entire thing and think
it's brilliant - I'm sure you've seen it (and encourage you to do so
if you haven't!)! Anyway, as it got close to the finish of the movie,
I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes and as I heard it, it
struck me smack bang in the heart.  It is a reflection by Red (one of
the main characters) about his friend Andy...

"Those of us who knew him best talk about him often. I swear, the
stuff he pulled. It always makes us laugh. Sometimes it makes me sad,
though, Andy being gone. I have to remind myself that some birds
aren't meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are just too
bright... and when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a
sin to lock them up does rejoice... but still, the place you live is
that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss
my friend."

Even now I tear up reading it back to myself and thinking about it. It
is a little different though to my/our situation, as the movie
concludes with a reunion of the two friends here on earth. (If you are
unfamiliar with the movie Red and Andy were in a prison and Andy got
out (hence the quote), and Red joined soon after.) I miss Ben all the
time and find this quote comforting - and I know there will be a happy
ending to our movie when we all get to heaven! I could go on forever
about my feelings of loss, sorrow and happiness since Ben won the
victory, but may leave that to a later conversation perhaps.
Now to the sad (yet happy) reality for Josh and I....

Next Monday we are moving house into our new two bedroom unit. This is
a good thing in itself, but we leave our little apartment that Ben
once shared with us every now and again. It reminds me that time keeps
moving and that we will have to move with it if we want to continue
our lives too, but slowly (as I remember you saying in a blog) things
will change, new things will happen that Ben won't be here to share
with us. This is one of them. We will miss showing him around our new
home, miss having him at our many bbqs that will happen, and miss many
more things too. BUT Ben has a very prominent spot on our fridge (a
couple of spots actually), so I feel like we take him with us too...of
course we take him with us - he is forever with us in our hearts! As
we packed up the other day, we took his photo off the fridge and said
to ourselves "Come on, let's go Ben - we're moving house".