RIP Beautiful Lourdes

The morning broke with a sunrise that was full of color and promises of a beautiful day here in the Pacific Northwest.  The sun was shining down on all of us today as we remembered the beautiful, life filled woman, Lourdes.

A few of us "girlfriends" met for brunch to get caught up, tell stories, remember Lourdes with laughter and smiles, and of course to drink a Bloody Mary.

None of us could remember if Lourdes even liked Bloody Mary's, but we all knew she'd love the fact we were drinking one in her honor.

Its what Lourdes would want.

Friends, Kara, Julie, Kim and I sat and chit chatted about so many wonderful times we spent with Lourdes.  We cried a little, well Kim cried a lot, we laughed a little, and we told each other how important they were to us.  It was cathartic. It was needed. It healed our broken hearts just a small bit.

Its what Lourdes would want.

The Celebration of Life was held at a local golf club that overlooks the area and shows, in my opinion, just why Seattle is so beautiful when it's sunny.

If you look real close in the middle of the photo, those tall buildings...that's Seattle.

I mean just look at that. The light green lawn of a well manicured golf course, with the dark evergreen trees standing proud in the back ground, to the blue, BLUE sky we had today. Gorgeous.

Its what Lourdes would want.

The Celebration was amazing.  Several friends and family members spoke and told stories about Lourdes.  We laughed. We cried. We sang along to a goofy ukulele version of "Hey Soul Sister" by Train.  A song that was definitely written for Lourdes and now whenever I hear it I will think of her.

We laughed. We cried some more.  We watched her Zumba friends get up and do a little dance in her honor.  We cried a lot when they showed a photo montage of Lourdes and showed just how full of life she truly was.  After that we were treated to a hula by her hula group.  Just beautiful and so heart felt. The large reception room was filled and standing room only.  If ever there was a doubt that she was loved, one just needed to look around this room.  Red, teary eyes every place you looked.  So much love and admiration spilling out from everyone in that room. I felt humbled just to be included in this group of people who can say they knew Lourdes and was a friend.

Its what Lourdes would want.

After the Celebration there was a reception. Us girls giggled, laughed, cried, drank wine, laughed, cried, and so on.  We promised to see each other more and, without doing a blood oath, meant it.

Left to right: Julie, Kim, me, Kim, and Kara

 We all met Lourdes during our early years at Microsoft in the early 90's and we all made an effort to get together as often as we can.  We found that life sometimes gets in the way of living life.  Families, kids, jobs, etc all got in the way of us seeing each other as much as we wanted to. But that's about to end.  We are going to start the Happy Hour Club.  Come hell or high water we are going to get together and keep caught up on each other's lives.  We have to.

It's what Lourdes would want.

Speaking of what Lourdes would want.  One of her relatives from Hawaii brought over hundreds...HUNDREDS of plumeria flowers for the attendees.  The smell of plumeria wafted through the hall and with every whiff you were reminded of Lourdes and the flower she always seemed to have in her hair.  We raised our glass one last time in memory of our dear friend. Who may be gone from this world, but is now and forever will be imprinted on our hearts. 

Its what Lourdes would want.