Hello Son,
Today, Sunday 21st, is your 10th month with Jesus.
It sure is a long time that You've been away from us. Knowing that you're happy and safe with Jesus and Mother Mary is the only thing that comforts your mother. :D
We went to your Flower Garden on Saturday 20th.
Yup, on Justine's birthday. :D
Something really, really cute happened on that day. You truly made your presence felt, Son, and that was precious because your beloved sister had just sang a song for You then.
We arrived at the Garden about 9am.
Justine was strumming on her guitar and singing some songs whilst Dad and Mom were tidying up the garden.
We were not surprised to see all your yellow daisies, from the previous month, taken from the the garden bed.
At least we know there's somebody out there at the Park who also appreciates your pretty flowers. In fact, this time as we were driving through the Park, Dad had pointed out to some plots that had everlasting flowers too.
Looks like You've just started a trend here in the Flower Park. :D
Today, Sunday 21st, is your 10th month with Jesus.
It sure is a long time that You've been away from us. Knowing that you're happy and safe with Jesus and Mother Mary is the only thing that comforts your mother. :D
We went to your Flower Garden on Saturday 20th.
Yup, on Justine's birthday. :D
Something really, really cute happened on that day. You truly made your presence felt, Son, and that was precious because your beloved sister had just sang a song for You then.
We arrived at the Garden about 9am.
Justine was strumming on her guitar and singing some songs whilst Dad and Mom were tidying up the garden.
We were not surprised to see all your yellow daisies, from the previous month, taken from the the garden bed.
At least we know there's somebody out there at the Park who also appreciates your pretty flowers. In fact, this time as we were driving through the Park, Dad had pointed out to some plots that had everlasting flowers too.
Looks like You've just started a trend here in the Flower Park. :D
So, anyway, Justine was singing away ...
Mom was planting a bunch of pink flowers on the bed and ...
Dad was clearing fallen leaves around the plot. It had rained heavily the night before, if You remember, and the air that morning was crisp and fresh.
When we were done tidying up the garden and planting the flowers, Dad recorded Justine singing IF I DIE YOUNG for You. :D
She sang so beautifully. <3
You must have been watching her sing that song for You, because in a few moments, You would send her a lil something that came in the form of an orange-black caterpillar. :D
See the above photo?
Mom's about to get real graphic, so You'd better listen carefully.
See the cement plot?
On the extreme right is the garden bed with the pink flowers.
There are 4 rows of square-slabs on the plot.
The first row, are the head stones of Aunty Tracy's and Yours.
When the caterpillar moment happened ...
Mom was sitting where Justine was in the above photo. Dad was by the extreme right side of the photo, facing the pink flowers. Justine was sitting between the 3rd and 4th row of the square-slabs (towards the left), and her guitar was placed on the space between the 2nd and 3rd rows of slabs.
Can You picture our position from up there?
Okay, so we were saying the Rosary at the time.
Mom started with the first decade.
Then Justine began the second decade.
Everything was just as normal as can be.
Your sister was reciting the 3rd or 4th bead, when she suddenly let out a sharp squeal and jumped up from where she was sitting.
Jus was sitting cross-legged, on the slabs, and she happened to notice a creepy crawlie crawling unannounced just inches away from her knees. Mom saw the furry caterpillar and her first reaction was to ask Dad to remove it.
Justine exclaimed excitedly, "It's an orange caterpillar!"
What???
Dad and Mom went down on our knees to peer at it closely.
It was a black furry caterpillar with an orange stripe on the body and around its head. As You'd know, that distinct orange-black reminds us instantly of You in your orange tee with the black printed words on it. That photo of You in the orange tee was also the one we chose for your farewell portrait and the procelain frame on your head stone.
Yes, ORANGE itself made a loud noise in the otherwise still and quiet atmosphere in the flower park.
Justine grabbed the camera and went on all fours, trying to snap close-up photos of our furry friend.
We all watched with fascination and wondered what the caterpillar was up to. It was cute to watch. From the moment it was spotted beside Justine's legs, between 3rd and 4th row of square-slabs, towards the left side, it had not stopped crawling.
It was just crawlin' crawlin crawlin away ... like it had some business to do. No time to stop and rest. :D
Very kepoh, the caterpillar ... :D
We observed our orange-friend crawling slowly but steadily across the slabs and headed towards the small white pot of flowers by your head stone. It sure did look like it knew where it was supposed to go.
From the side of the white pot, the caterpillar crawled steadily UP your head stone.
Where was our furry friend heading to, You'd wonder.
Justine continued to snap macro images of the orange-crawlie.
Ah, it finally managed to climb up the head stone. We watched it crawled across the "A" of your engraved surname.
Then, it reached your porcelain frame.
At first, Mom was quite relieved that the caterpillar appeared to be turning right, and she thought it would just move AROUND the frame, and NOT across it.
Your mother didn't quite like the idea of the creepy crawlie crawling across your photo.
It made her feel very geli.
Yes, geli. Squirmish-geli.
Her relief was short-lived.
Instead of crawling along-side the frame, as your mother was hoping it'd do, the caterpillar turned its head back towards the left, and started to ...
CRAWL - UP - THE - FRAME.
Oh No No No ...
Stop Stop Stop!!!
Caterpillar - STOPPP!!!
Mom felt very, very eee-ky about the orange insect crawling across your photo.
Justine at the same time had a similar thought. We related to each other in the car later.
Your sister was apparently thinking, "OMG, it's gonna go up his face. He's not gonna like it!"
As we were thinking the OH-NO frantic-thoughts, the caterpillar somehow sensed our vibes and STOPPED MOVING.
It has been crawling non-stop since we spotted it on the slab near Justine's legs, but at this point, with its head and upper portion of the body on the porcelain frame, it appeared to understand our thoughts, and stopped crawling.
Mom was thinking in her head,
Please don't go across the photo. Be a good caterpillar and just go AROUND it.
The caterpillar hesitated there, at that position, for a good 10 seconds or so. If we didn't know better, we'd have thought that it actually stopped to think for a bit.
Then, would You believe it, but our orange-friend started to ...
retreat
move back
goes-tan
patah balik (Justine's words)
and changed direction.
It was so very cute to watch.
Imagine, the caterpillar was already on the frame, one-third of the body was on the photo frame, and it somehow detected our vibes and knew we didn't want it to go across your photo.
It was as if the caterpillar was thinking to itself, "They don't want me to go across? Now what ... O.O ... How will they know that Daniel sent me? He did warn me that his mother might be difficult. Ah, I know. I'll have to take this other way then." :D
We watched the cute caterpillar ...
Yeah, by this time, it had earned the word "cute" from us ...
... MOVED BACKWARDS and GOT DOWN the frame, before crawling closely by the edge of the frame heading up north.
It crawled on its, what, one thousand lil legs, moving upwards and along-side the slight curve of side of the frame.
Yes, AROUND the frame, thank GOD.
Aww, good caterpillar ...
So there the caterpillar was, crawlin' up up up and away, and around the frame, until it reached the "eye-area" of your photo, when it decided to make an ABRUPT (11 o'clock) turn to the left.
This orange-crawlie certainly knew where it wanted to go.
Like it was on a mission or something. :D
Where do You think our furry friend was heading to?
Between Ma and Son ... :D
Would You believe it ...
The caterpillar took that sudden detour from the porcelain frame and crawled straight to the word "SON."
Knowing our sentiments about it crawling ACROSS your photo, the clever caterpillar was very careful this time, not to crawl over the SON-word but right beside it.
The caterpillar was probably thinking, "If Daniel's mother doesn't like me to crawl over her Son's photo, I'm sure she wouldn't like me to go over the word "SON" either.
Chuckle.
So very carefully, the caterpillar avoided the word. However, it made sure it was close enough to the SON-word so the message would not be lost - in translation.
How cute is that? :D
At this point, You must have whispered to Justine to snap a photo, because as the caterpillar was crawling and moving about, we really did not notice and could not tell what it was up to, until we viewed the photos at home on the computer - the day after (Sunday).
From there, it slowly crawled down the head stone and left us staring at one another.
Oh Wow!
We've been to your Garden every month since the day You left us in January, and not once have we encountered a caterpillar, let alone a caterpillar with an ORANGE-stripe.
That was pretty special, what You did, Son ... We know it's a lil something for Justine, and to let her know that You're there with her. It wasn't just any caterpillar. It was an orange-black one. One that made us think of You instantly when we saw it. :D
Anyway, we left it then, at that point, and resumed our Rosary.
There was plenty to say in the car later!
As a summary ...
the orange caterpillar, crawled from the spot Justine was sitting ...
traveled across the slabs like a nomad in the dessert ...
reached the left side of the white lil pot of flowers ...
pumped up enough energy to climb up the head stone ...
crawled across the "A" in the PHUA name ...
and headed to the porcelain frame ...
went UP the frame and was about to crawl across ...
hesitated momentarily ...
then, backed down and retreated ...
moved AROUND the edge of the porcelain frame instead ...
approached the "eye" part of the frame ...
made an abrupt turn at 11 o'clock ...
crawled in a straight line to the word SON ...
before crawling down the head stone and left the scene.
Our furry friend must have said gleefully at the end of the 5 minute or so mission, "Ah, Mission Accomplished!" :D
On Thursday 18th, 3 days ago, an orange-black moth paid us a visit in the living room.
Aunty Jessie said in her text message, "Wow, amazing the orange moth. Almost looked like the one that visited me. It was bright orange too. If it wasn't so distinct I wouldn't have stopped and looked."
