"There's a spirit can ne'er be told....."

Yesterday we decided to make our annual trek to the country in search of bluebonnets. These wildflowers are our state flower and yet in the Houston area are very hard to find. So we decided to take our one free Saturday (without a soccer game!) and just go for a drive. We grabbed the camera, dressed the boys in shirts that would look good w/ the background we were looking for, and took off. We hit all out usual spots to no avail....seems like this year all we saw were Indian paintbrush and while they are pretty, it just doesn't look the same. So on we drove....we found ourselves up near College Station and decided to forget the bluebonnets and just go to A&M to show the boys where Daddy went to school. And it just so happened that we ended up seeing a decent patch right near the campus so we still got our pictures! Go figure!

Our first top on campus was at George Bush Presidential Library. What a beautiful place. Behind the library is a beautiful pond with a walking path and little benches all around. A very romantic setting! There's a footbridge that leads to a winding path back to where the President and Barabara will be buried. Already there is the stone for their daughter Robin who died at the very young age of 4. Even the Bushes know the heartache of saying goodbye to a child too soon.

From there we decided to go see the memorial for the 1999 Bonfire victims since it had just been erected last fall and we hadn't been back for a while. We got in all this traffic and realized we'd come on Parent's Weekend! Yikes!

The Bonfire Memorial was so moving. Not being an Aggie myself, I don't totally understand all the traditions involved, but I have attended Bonfire and it was something I'll never forget. I thought I had school spirit but the Aggies reign supreme in that department. The Memorial is right where Bonfire was always held, and there are 12 archways in a circle...each one facing the direction of the student's hometown. On the inside of each archway is a bronze plaque with the likeness of the student, their name and hometown, and poems, letters and quotes by or about them. What was amazing is that most of the families said their sons and daughters died doing what made them happy...preparing for the Big Game by building Bonfire, a tradition that had been going on for many many years.
I kept thinking to myself, what would I have done if I had been one of the moms recieving the call at 3 am that my son had died in this horrific accident? And as I was thinking that, I moved to another memorial to see a grieving family, touching the face of their lost loved one, with tears streaming. part of me wanted to go up to one of them and say I'm so sorry for your loss, and yet I didn't want to disturb their time of grief and remembrance. Even though it had been 5 years, it was obvious that their son was still greatly missed.

http://bonfire.tamu.edu/