Corn Means I Love You Geoffs 11 year-old son Jaymin lives in North Carolina during the school year so we considered ourselves very fortunate to have had him stay with us in Hoopers Island for the entire summer this year. The summer was awesome! We spent lots of time on the beach and the catamaran. Jaymin made driftwood and seaglass art alongside his dad and worked with both of us in the store. At night we would play board games for hours, laughing and joking until bedtime. One day, as we were riding into work, we passed a farm advertising corn for sale. At the exact same time all three of us read the sign aloud....Corn. Corn. Corn. Simultaneously. In unison. Three voices as one. We all laughed. After that cornbecame our private little saying. Our secret code if you will. Corn took on special meaning for us. When we all texted each other we would end our text with the word corn. Eventually Geoff declared that corn means I love you. Jaymin and Geoff surprised me one day when I came home from work with a little sea class ear of corn they had made for me. Jaymin also made a driftwood corn sign that Geoff turned into a pin for me. When I went to the beach for the first time by myself after Geoffs accident I desperately scanned the shoreline for a special message or sign from my soulmate. I figured that if he wanted to tell me that he was ok or that he still loved me, that the beach would be the first place his spirit would fly. So I picked up every scrap of trash and read every piece of imprinted glass in hopes that the letters would present some kind of love sign. I was heartbroken when I reached the end of the beach and hadnt found anything special or out of the ordinary. I stood there sobbing... missing my best friend and soulmate. Thinking of the myriad of special times we shared on that beach. Wondering if I would ever find joy in anything on this planet again without him. Just then, as I turned to walk back towards the car, I looked down and saw an ear of corn on the beach!! We had been to that beach a gazillion times and never ever ever once did either of us see an ear of corn. I took that as a sign that he was still loving me from afar. I could distinctly hear him saying Corn, baby. CORN. A few weeks later I went to our Hoopers Island house to clean out our garage. It was heartbreaking to stand in there alone. It took my breath away. Everything was exactly as Geoff had left it....driftwood scraps on his workbench, black work gloves standing full as though his hands were still in them, an empty cobalt blue Budweiser bottle that his sweet lips had just touched the night before his accident. I had a major panic attack while trying to grasp the fact that Geoff was gone. I felt dizzy. Frightened beyond words. Frozen. I thought for a minute that I had tucked my cellphone into my bra and that someone was calling me and that it was on vibrate but then I realized that my cell phone was in the car and that I had never tucked anything into my bra anyway. The vibrating was my heart. Pure raging panic. I ran out of there and jumped in my car and spun my wheels in haste. I just needed to get away. I was crying so hard that I couldnt see through my tears to drive. A few miles from our house I pulled over on the side of the road to collect myself. Right beside my car door, almost close enough to touch, was a single stalk of corn growing between the edge of the marsh and the edge of the road. So random. Her little corn arms were blowing in the breeze...as though she were waving at me....as though she were sending me Geoffs love. Corn. Yet another week later I was having a very very difficult time figuring out what I was supposed to do with my life in the absence of my husband and best friend. I was only sleeping a few hours each night. I was having a very difficult time getting motivated to open my store. It was a major task just to go to Walmart or to stop at a gas station and pump gas. I washed and re- washed the same three t-shirts and yoga pants and wore then day after day not caring enough to wear something different or to make myself even remotely presentable. Nothing mattered. I felt completely and utterly lost in my own skin. I was just going through the motions. Waking up in the morning dreading the day and going to sleep at night dreading the dark. I had moved all of my things into a house that I decided I couldnt live in and had to rent a UHaul to move them back out. I went online and made a reservation for a 26 foot u-haul that I was to pick up in East New Market which was just about 10 minutes from Cambridge. The next day I got the confirmation email but instead of saying that I was picking up the Uhaul a few minutes from my home the reservation showed that I had to pick up the u-haul in Georgetown, Delaware which was almost an hour and a half away. I called the U Haul company and was told that they didnt have the truck in Cambridge after all and that if I wanted it I had to drive to Delaware. So I did. I entered the address of the rental facility into my phones GPS and headed for Georgetown, Delaware. When I got within seconds of the Uhaul rental place my GPS instructed me to turn left into the parking lot but for some reason something compelled me to turn right instead. I even looked directly at at the building where the U Haul office was and I still turned in the opposite direction. Not only did I turn right but I continued to drive through a parking lot and into the backyard of an apartment building.... even though I knew that the U Haul was in the exact opposite direction. The lane that I was driving down dead-ended at a circular patch of land that contained the tallest corn that I have ever seen in my life. And standing between the patch of corn and the apartment building was a Spanish speaking man. It was though he was standing there waiting for me. He wasnt walking anywhere and he wasnt doing anything. He was just standing there waiting for me to get out of the car. I smiled and said hello and started taking pictures of the corn. In broken English he said to me you lik-a de corn? I smiled and said Yes!! This is the greatest corn Ive ever seen! Its so tall!! It must have been planted with love. He said yes, the corn has come from far away. Holy shit!! I thought to myself is this sweet Spanish speaking man an angel that is here to tell me that Geoff sent me the corn love from Heaven?! From far away?! I felt like I was in a crazy dream. I felt pure euphoria. Geoff loves me sooo much!! I was feeling it!! I knew it was not just a coincidence that my U Haul reservation had changed to a town three hours (round-trip) away..... And that it just so happened to be in town where there was 15 foot tall corn growing and it just so happened to be a man waiting for me to get out of my car to say that the corn came from far away. But then the sweet Spanish man said the corn came all the way from Guatemala. Anyway what I took away from all of these corn signs s that since corn equals love that there is no specific place for it to grow. Just like the random single stalk of corn growing by the side of the road, we can plant love anywhere and everywhere we travel and we can share love with whomever we please. And dont set limits on the depth and breadth of your love. Let your love reach the heights of the Georgetown corn. As you share this Thanksgiving with your family and friends Geoff wants you to remember Corn. Remember to love with abandon. Love deeply. Love freely.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 20:09:35 +0000
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