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Another week, another recap (yep I’m a slacker!)
Matt and I didn’t have any real plans for the weekend besides going to an event one of Patrick’s friends had scheduled for Saturday night. His friend Mike is the manager at Mellow Mushroom in Wake Forest. Mike decided to play a few songs as a kick off to the Patrick Edwards Foundation. (This will be a charitable foundation that will help under privileged youth learn the art of making EDM – electronic dance music.)
I knew about the event but I really had no idea there would be fundraising until Saturday when Matt and I set out to buy supplies, a receipt book and cash box. I figured we might raise a few hundred dollars which would be great. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would raise over $1200.00. Like that’s some serious money! I was blown away by the generosity of Patrick’s friends, several of which, made rather large donations. It was just an amazing night spent with good people and good music!
The event was great, and Mike did a wonderful job performing! Hopefully we will be able to be apart of numerous fundraisers for this cause.
After a wonderful Saturday night, we spent Sunday doing a whole lot of nothing. It was rainy and gross out and a perfect veg day. We slept in (which we always do), ate lunch, Matt worked out and I threw some clothes in the wash, then we both took naps. 🙂 Good lazy day!
~k
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A special craft
I don’t think I mentioned it, but my brother in law Patrick, was very big in the music scene. He played the guitar, managed a music store and was constantly going to festivals to help.
As we were cleaning his house, we started finding guitar picks laying around. I guess I didn’t really think about the fact that he probably had a ton of them until we had a little baggie full. As soon as I saw how many there were I knew what I wanted to do! I asked Jill and Steve if I could have them for a project I had in mind. Of course they said yes, so for the past 2 months they’ve been sitting in the closet waiting on me.
On Sunday Matt and I ran to Michael’s to find the items I needed. A glass back frame and some glue. I ended up buying 2 frames because I wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted to do. One idea involved some sheet music. The other just needed a frame. Plus they were different sizes, one was square and one was rectangular, and I wasn’t sure which size would work best. In the end I used the rectangular one.
So what did I do? I glued the guitar pics to the to glass. It wasn’t hard or too time consuming, though it did take a little while to figure out which ones I wanted where. I knew I wanted to use the memorial ones at the top and bottom and I just filled in from there.
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Where have I been?
I woke up the other day and realized the month of January was almost over. Whew, what a crazy few weeks!
We held a private funeral for Patrick on January 4th in Ocean Isle. It was nice to say our good byes without a crowd of people around us. The next day several of Jill and Steve’s neighbors organized an open house for their neighborhood. The ladies did an amazing job of coordinating food and people over the course of the afternoon.
The next weekend, January 13th, we headed to ATL to celebrate Pat’s life with his Atlanta friends. Several people pulled together and secured a venue, two bands, and food for the night. We didn’t know many of his ATL friends but everyone was super sweet. I think we were all a little blown away with the fact that this was an “event” and not just a gathering of people. It was wonderful to meet everyone and hear stories of Patrick.
This past Saturday, the 19th, several of Patrick’s Raleigh friends (this was more high school and college friends) hosted a gathering at their house. This consisted of many people the family had known for years. While very different from ATL, to me, this was his memorial. Several people give speeches. We laughed, we cried and we drank a lot. All in all it was a very good night.
I am so thankful there have been so many wonderful people who have come together and worked to organize, host, and coordinate all of the events of the past few weeks! Patrick touched so many people’s lives and I hope he knew just how special and loved he was!
~k
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With love
The other week when the Sandy Hook shootings occurred, the only thing I could think about was all of the families that would have unopened presents under their trees. Presents for children who would never return home. Little did I know that our family would face the same fate.
Sunday Matt’s parents called to let us know that Patrick, his younger brother, was sick with food poisoning and they were headed to ATL to see him. He wouldn’t have enough time to come home since he was sick. Their plan was to spend Christmas morning with Patrick and they would meet us at their house later in the day. This seemed to work well for us since we had planned to spend Christmas Eve with my parents, have Christmas morning with the two of us, and head to their house a little later in the day.
Yesterday Matt and I had a few errands to run before my parents came over. We got home around 2 pm when Matt received a call from his dad. I could hear Steve through Matt’s phone. He said he had bad news, then I heard him say Patrick was gone. Almost immediately I saw the tears.
Once Matt was off the phone I grabbed him and hugged him. He laid on me crying while I called my parents to let them know what had happened. Mom and dad couldn’t believe the news and I told them I’d call later.
Matt and I laid on the couch for awhile. I finally managed to get him to go upstairs and lie down. I called my parents and told them to come over. I couldn’t sit in the house in silence. And truthfully, I wanted them there. They came over a little while later and we talked for a while. I filled them in with what I knew but it still wasn’t much. At this point, it looked like Patrick had slipped in the bathroom and hit his head. An accident.
A little later Matt came downstairs and we talked and had a few drinks. I attempted to make dinner and we opened gifts. It really helped to keep out minds busy. Matt managed to get some our clothes washed and dried and put away. Anything to keep busy. After dinner mom and dad left and Matt and I busied ourselves with house work. We finally agreed to open gifts so we could leave first thing Christmas morning. Matt thought we should drive to ATL to be with his parents.
Neither of us slept much last night and around 7 this morning we got up and got ready to leave. We left Raleigh around 9 and made it to ATL by 3pm. We talked to his parents and they recounted the events of the day before. Then we headed to the hotel lounge for a few drinks. We talked and teared up and finally managed to eat a little.
Tomorrow we will go back to Patrick’s and pack his things, then we will head back to Jill and Steve’s house in Thursday.
The past day has been filled with tons of fb posts from Patrick’s friends. There’re are tons of heartfelt posts all saying the same thing, what a great guy Patrick was and how much he will be missed. The words are so hard to read but at the same time it’s wonderful to see how many people’s lives he touched.
We love you Patrick!
