I hope today went as well as it could do. I’m inspired by your strength and courage in the face of terrible adversity. As a father myself I’m not convinced I could have coped in the way that you have done. In your own way you and your little boy have inspired more people than the vast majority of us achieve in our lifetimes. For that you should be incredibly proud. Wishing you and your family all the best for the future.
Thanks ‘bearnecessities’ it was a cold morning at sherwood pines me Vic ( in orange ) and a friend Emma had planned a peak district ride but snow put a stop to that idea, One of the silver star balloons made a run for it and got away before time 😳 I put a little message on explaining what the balloon was for and a little bag of wild flower seeds, it snowed just after we let them go xx
AMAZING that is is all i can say THANK YOU all so much its made my day so much better i shall post mine up a little later
today was hard but with the support I’ve had it made it so much easier and i can only give that to you as with out you i could not have done it .
writing on this forum is easier than talking to family members etc.
oh and our organist made us laugh (really out of tune lol)
Well Lewis we are all here for you when you want or need to talk ,I didn’t get chance to get a balloon but I observed a minutes silence and said a little prayer .take care
I was able to find some yellow SpongeBob balloons and made up a little card to attach to it.
The weather at home was not nice, maybe a little above freezing and some light rain. This is not the type of weather that I like to ride in at all, but I felt that I had to go and release this balloon today in George’s memory. So I loaded up the fat bike and drove up to the park. Although only a little over 2 miles away, the weather there was different. It was snowing was cold enough that the snow was building up on the ground.
Before I got out of my truck, I attached the balloon to a heavy padlock to make sure that it would not blow away if it slipped out of my hand or something! Then I put the lock as well as the card attached to the balloon in my Camelbak and rode to the spot that I had in mind for the release.
Once there, I leaned the bike against a big old oak tree and found a spot to set the camera to use the timer to get a photo of myself.
Then, I noticed a problem. The balloon wasn’t pulling up on its string! Between the cold outside temperature and all of the snow sticking to the balloon, there wasn’t enough helium in it to get it to rise. So, I hunched over the balloon and rubbed the snow and water off of it with my gloves. It was just enough, and I let the balloon go.
It climbed slowly but steadily, and I watched it till it was out of sight. Farewell, George. You are not forgotten!
This is the clearing after the release, and a couple of pics on the ride back.
The release took place just off of White Oak Trail in Pleasant Valley Park, Murrysville, Pennsylvania.
Still can’t read this thread properly, some lovely tributes. I can’t begin to imagine how tough this time is for you. There is a great community here & it apparent in the tributes. Keep strong and keep going. I can’t make a money donation (i think this is what may have been happening but cant read the thread properly) but if I can use my arty skill set in anyway to make your life easier right now please be in touch, or via the mods.
I took a couple of minutes out for you, your family and George yesterday. Quietly thinking of you at 1230. I had a tears in my eyes and had to compose myself before going back into work.
Read through all the posts again today and words fail me, your strength, the generosity of strangers and the kindness shown here left me with tears in my eyes again.
I hope in time the pain fades but that in the short time you had with George he brought you joy and happiness that you can remember him by.
I’ve been unable to read this thread without welling up, tears in my eyes right now & they’re starting to roll down my cheeks. It has taken me 2 weeks to be able to face reading it.
I was going to try and say something profound & meanigful, but words are failing me at the moment. I’m not very good at saying the right thing at the best of times. I can’t imagine what you’ve been through.
I was unable to join in the ballon release yesterday, so sorry. If you don’t mind I will release one on Sunday for Spongebob!
Even though we’ve never met I’m thinking of you and your family, please give them all huge hugs from me.
Helen
Keep seeing this thread, popping in and keep meaning to say something but I can’t really think of anything to say that hasn’t already been said. Your attitude is amazing and this thread has been strangely inspirational in a way. Love the balloon release pictures.
I rode at Hit the North yesterday, quite a few people saw my balloons and gave me a nod or made a comment, George was in a lot of peoples minds yesterday.
As you can see I let my balloons go right at the start of the race, as a keen mtb’er I thought you’d like it as something slightly different to some of the other (wonderful) pictures already posted.
Thanks to Andy (Harry the Spider) for allowing me to stand on the start line with them at the begining of the race.
Sorry not been about lately been so busy. and to be honest just sat feeling sorry for myself.
But today i got up went for a walk and feel much better.
Got to brave the next step Work tomorrow!!
Thank you to all for the pic’s i have received loads via email so thank you so much for taking the time to do that for us.
i shall wait a little longer (as not everyone was able to let balloons off this week) but end of next week i shall be ordering the photos to go in our box.
Good luck tomorrow. I’m sure the folk around you at work will be as much of a support to you as folk here have been. Theres another side to people at times like these and I’m sure they’ll step up.
We went into town today & managed to get a helium balloon, although they wouldn’t fill the ‘George’ balloon with helium as it wasn’t ‘supplied by them’.
We figured the helium balloon would have enough oomph though to get them both aloft…
We drove over to Ferry Meadows in Peterborough, found a quiet spot & let them go….
At first, they weren’t gaining much height and we were worried they would get caught in the trees, but all of a sudden they really took off & shot up. We watched them until they were out of sight….it was quite busy there, so hopefully others noticed them.
I hope you coped at work as best as you could. I am sure that all the messages and pictures have helped you in this utterly terrible time. I have to say through tears after reading what some of you have done for the memory of George has given me hope for mankind.