October 11, 1985: Dad's Ashes

On October 11, 1985, my friends and I were looking at my dad’s ashes in this urn. I think it freaked my mom out. It was weird to see my dad’s bones and such all made into small pieces. It was sad for me to see those ashes.



My mom knew how my dad loved Lake Michigan so we decided to throw his ashes out into Lake Michigan. We went out at night and walked the Pere Marquette Pier in the dark and spread his ashes at the end of the first stretch of the pier. I remember the two of us crying as it was so hard to do that. Who would have ever imagined that my father would take his life.

Before he died, we were thinking about moving to Florida, as he couldn’t find a good job in Muskegon. Plus, his parents were living down there in the winter months.

Sometime around that night, my mother had this vision, which I truly believe to this day. It wasn’t a dream, but it was God and my father letting her know that she was going to be OK and that she was going to find a job that she truly enjoyed. They also told her not to worry about her daughter, Amy, as I would be successful.     To this day, I always believe in that.  I don’t think it was a dream, but truly God and my father talking to us.