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Arielle C.'s Web Page! Welcome to Arielle's web page. It has been created to keep people updated about her battle with Acute lymphoblastic leukemia. I have been finding it increasingly difficult to keep friends and family updated about things, hopefully I will do a better job by journaling daily updates here! :-)
Please, take a minute to sign the guestbook, Arielle will love reading them and it will give her something to look forward to over the coming months!
Journal
Saturday, July 13, 2001 at 11:43 AM (CDT) Dear Friends,
Today we buried our precious little one. The service was as we wanted it, and as I know Arielle would have wanted too, nothing elaborate or fussy with the guests wearing casual attire. The minister did a wonderful job of capturing Arielle's spirit, and we all laughed and cried. We kept the number of invited guests to a minimum to keep things intimate, listened to some of her favorite classicial music, the Little Mermaid, Over the Rainbow, and a Charlotte Church lullaby, then we all placed flowers upon her beautiful pink (of course) casket. Arielle was buried with all the necessities of a young lady, Samantha American doll and accessories (she has been asking me over the past year "Mommy, if I die, can I be buried with my Samantha doll??" Heartbroken to have my child even think of this, I would say of course, and then she would smile and be on her way..), her favorite stuffed kitties, photos of her family placed by her heart, a necklace with a Chai (Jewish symbol of life) for Glenn and a cross for me, angel pins including one given to her by my Aunt Toots while we were inpt at COH, and she was wrapped in her pink comforter.
After the services were over, the Funeral Director came up to us quite excited, to let us know that the burial plot that we had chosen for Arielle was a very special one indeed.. The cemetery is quite old for California, 1800's, and we were lucky to find a space in the older section , very private area near some trees. Anyway, it is beneath an large Eucalyptus tree, which certain times of the year gets covered with migrating Monarch butterflies! He said that it is quite a sight, that people come in just to witness it, Cal Poly students and professors come to observe and sketch them etc... How perfect for Arielle, the expert little butterfly hunter, who contrary to what the Minister said in today's service did NOT need a butterfly net to catch butterflies but was so patient and skilled that she did it with her bare little hands, to be buried under a tree filled with butterflies. We look forword to seeing this, how special it will be for us, especially Alanna!
After the service, Glenn and I and the kids went to a beach that has been very signifigant to us over the years, it is where we were the day we found out that Arielle had leukemia in 1997, Alanna & Arielle's favorite spot for collecting shells and rocks, and where we have always gone when trying to come to grips with things such as after our disappointing stay at Parker Hughes in MN, and following the BMT, and again finding out that she had relapsed again. It is a state beach which goes on for miles and miles of beautiful cliffs, small sandy beaches, woods for hiking, trails for horses, wild life and tide pools - a place hard to find nowadays.. So it seemed the most appropriate place for us to do something else in Arielle's memory. Anyway, we took flowers that we had carried during the service along with some from her casket and reached an area of the beach where they would be taken out to sea. It was cloudy, foggy at the beach, but shortly after we sent the flowers on their way, the clouds opened up around the sun and it was most heavenly looking, and we all felt that we were getting our sign from heaven and Arielle that she was with us and that all was well with her now...
Alanna was remarkably composed throughout the service, and a friend who used to do hospice work says that children under 12 don't usually hit true grieving for quite a few weeks, before that they have denial. I'm sure for Alanna, her grief will be a long-term experience for obvious reasons.
We had a real crisis this morning and almost canceled Arielle's memorial. We had NO idea that we were burying her on Friday the 13th until this morning!! I hope in the future that the mortuary will circle in red all Friday the 13th's, and be sure to point out to families when this is going to happen. With our mental anquish, we had no idea of the dates... We could have buried Arielle yesterday. Once we got over the shock, Matthew and I felt that we really needed to go through with it today for closure and to know that Arielle was taken care of , and that it is just a silly superstition anyway. We looked it up in the encyclopedia, and were surprised to learn that it was actually based on Christianity!! That Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and that he had 13 apostles, and that is what it stemmed from most likely. What saved us was learning that according to the Jewish religion, you can not be buried on the sabbath, which is of course Saturday. Glenn called a Rabbi and confirmed that it would be sacriledge to bury Arielle tomorrow. Also, he said that this would be considered a lucky day, I think just that 13 is a lucky number, I don't know why.. I am so relieved that we found this out, and took care of our daughter as we should. And the date that we will always remember and memorialize will be the 11th anyway, the day she passed.
I know that all of us are feeling an incredible range of emotions, from deep sadness and pain, shock, disbelief over what Arielle went through all these years, discussing what went wrong with her medical care that caused her to die when she did, relief that she is now in heaven and pain free, relief that we no longer have to wait in absolute terror for test results, etc..
I'll post again later to let you know how things are going,
Thanks again for your comforting words,
Love,
Priscilla & family
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Links:
http://makeachildsmile.org/ Children with life-threatening illnesses
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