Day of the Dead/All Saints Day

Today is the Day of the Dead/All Saints Day. Our church, Emanuel Lutheran Church, celebrates this day, as we have a large Hispanic congregation as part of the church. Usually we have an English service at 9:30, then the Hispanic service at noon, but today there will be a combined service at 10:30. All of the liturgy, sermon and songs will be in English & Spanish. Yesterday, some of us built altars at the church to our loved ones who have passed on. I built my altar to Cavan. I used his bicycle racing trophy, as this was the start of his racing that he so much enjoyed. He was 11 when he won 2nd place at this race in Jenks, OK. I also put up several photos of Cavan with his bicycle or his motorcycles. My sister, Cindy, has a Day of the Dead class that she teaches in ceramics. She made this statue of Cavan on his motorcycle and the vase with photos on it as examples to show her class. She sent them to me to use in my altar. I also included my recipe book that I made for my boys in 1999 and it is turned to the page for the recipe for Manicotti. This was Cavan's favorite food. I am taking Manicotti for our potluck dinner after the church service today. I also wrote a page and included some photos, telling about Cavan and how he started racing motorcycles. And I wrote about how Cavan was an organ donor and about DeWayne, the recipient of Cavan's left kidney and liver. DeWayne would not be here today without Cavan's special gift. Cavan's family and friends miss him very much, but a part of him is still alive.