On Saturday, April 12th Matt's family, friends, and community gathered to grieve together and celebrate the wonderful life he led during the much too short 26 years we had with him. Matthew wanted his ashes spread in three different places on the island and one of those was at Laupahoehoe Point. So we gathered as a group at the old school gym to remember Matt. We all laughed and cried through the "eulogy in pictures" slideshow his partner Vicky put together of pictures throughout Matt's life that perfectly captured Matt's joyful spirit. The slideshow and pictures from the event can be viewed here. One of Matthew's poetry professors read one of Matt's poems that illustrated Matt's strong sense of social justice and showcased his writing talents. Then Matt's father Mark shared this piece that Matt wrote in the fourth grade after a weekend camping at Laupahoehoe Point.
After the grand send off everyone slowly made their way back to the gym for a local style potluck to "talk story," sharing many fond memories of Matt, while family friends played Hawaiian music for everyone to enjoy. We created prayer flag style memory wall where people wrote memories of Matt on colored index cards and hung them on a line for others to read and for Matt's family to keep. The entire event was so "very Matt" and was a perfect way to say good bye to our dear son, brother, partner, and friend.
Waves
Against the Rocks
When
I go to the ocean and the waves crash against the rocks, it’s like I’m in a
whole different world. The wind has the fragrance of the salt from the ocean. I
stand on a rock and get sprayed with cool, moisturizing water. You can listen
to the rhythmic lapping and great thunderous symphony of the ocean. When you
stick out your tongue, in comes the bitter taste of saltiness. This is a place
where you can lay without anything to do and think about troubles, happy times,
and your future. Or you can rest your mind and fall into a deep slumber and be
content with your life. But when you leave, that world disappears until you
come again and open your mind to the ocean.
Immediately following this we all followed Matt's parents and family in a silent mindfulness walk to the ocean, remembering Matthew and the ways he touched each of our lives. Once we reached the point, Mark was paddled out into the ocean by a friend of the family, sent off in a shower of flowers thrown from shore. Once out to sea, beyond the lava rocks, Mark placed Matt's ashes into the ocean while everyone watched from shore. As he did this buckets of gorgeous Hawaiian flowers were dropped from a helicopter, giving Matt the grand send off he deserved.
Immediately following this we all followed Matt's parents and family in a silent mindfulness walk to the ocean, remembering Matthew and the ways he touched each of our lives. Once we reached the point, Mark was paddled out into the ocean by a friend of the family, sent off in a shower of flowers thrown from shore. Once out to sea, beyond the lava rocks, Mark placed Matt's ashes into the ocean while everyone watched from shore. As he did this buckets of gorgeous Hawaiian flowers were dropped from a helicopter, giving Matt the grand send off he deserved.
.jpg) |
| mindfulness walk to the ocean |
After the grand send off everyone slowly made their way back to the gym for a local style potluck to "talk story," sharing many fond memories of Matt, while family friends played Hawaiian music for everyone to enjoy. We created prayer flag style memory wall where people wrote memories of Matt on colored index cards and hung them on a line for others to read and for Matt's family to keep. The entire event was so "very Matt" and was a perfect way to say good bye to our dear son, brother, partner, and friend.
Beautiful job, everyone who worked on this. Matt is a lucky man to be so well loved.
ReplyDelete