Mikey and the Honeysuckel

[Ultima Weapon]

Relations with my biological father have been much more than 'distasteful.' My mother divorced him when I was only two years old. After many years, my mother met and fell in love with a loving outdoorsman named Jim. I was only nine or ten years old when they decided to marry. My mother and I loved him very much, and he was much more of a true father to me than my biological father ever was. Unfortunately, precisely one week before their wedding, we found out that he had stage four terminal cancer, and was expected less than a month to live...

Well, that tough ol' fool lasted two whole years, giving a well deserved kick to destiny before he finally gave in. My mother held his hand as he was passing away on his deathbed, saying "I'm gonna hold your hand 'till Jesus takes it." until finally, Jesus did...

Now, my mother always told my stepfather that her most favorite of all dogs were beagles. So Jim as a farewell present, set up a secret arrangement with one of his friends, so that after he died, his friend would go to a beagle farm and get a beagle as a final farewell gift to my mother. He arrived, and we named him Mikey...

Years went by, and as many of you may know, little Mikey passed away just here in January...

He was incredibly sick. He had severe kidney desease, and his kidneys were about to fail. So after some great difficulty trying to console my mother, and convince her of it being the best thing, we drove him to the vet clinic in the next county to have him put down. However, one of the most profound experiences happened during the ride home. After leaving the vet clinic alone, the most beautiful sunset either of us have ever seen appeared in the sky. It was the first ever sunset that covered the entire sky, not just the western part of it. It had every type of cloud in it, and just about every color. It brought such a feeling of warmth to my mother and me, and lasted longer than most sunsets ever last. It lasted an entire car ride from one county to the next.

The next day, Mikey was buried in a pet cemetary by a man named Jim. He owns and maintains the pet cemetary. Mikey was buried under a large tree, what we discovered during his burial to be a honeysuckel tree. My stepfather Jim's favorite tree, and overall favorite scent, was that of the honeysuckel. It is by far the largest honeysuckel tree we've ever seen. As we were arriving at the cemetary to bury him, it was pouring down rain. Practically the exact moment we arrive at the cemetary, the rain completely stopped. The rain started up again the exact moment we left.

On our first return visit, on the first beautiful day, another strange and oddly beautiful thing happened. Out of no where, came the scent of the honeysuckel. It lasted several minutes before it completely disappeared. It is currently winter, and the honeysuckel tree is in complete hybernation. There is no way that the tree could have given off that scent. It literally seemed to have come from no where.

Essentially the point of my story is, God gave comfort to my grieving mother, his name was Mikey. Now, it's time I think for both of us, both me and my mother, to find comfort instead with God...