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My mom gave the BEST hugs.
Hi, my name is Jene' Jackson, and in December 2012, my mom died of cancer at 67, too young and too bright. The following week, we road-tripped from our home in Colorado to bury her in a cemetery with her family in rural Tennessee.
Every year since, I’ve wanted to road-trip back to be at her grave on her birthday, August 3rd.
I planned it all out: I would give her flowers and picnic with her favorite foods, tell her about life, and connect with family there. I’d photograph and write about it along the way (I’m a writer/photographer), hang out with my mom’s 87-year-old brother, Uncle Bud, and listen to family stories and history.
But every year, it hasn't happened. Money, unreliable vehicles & especially grief have held me back. The day after her funeral, after we all hugged goodbye, my brother and his wife were hit by two semis on I40 on their way home, and exactly one week after Mom died, so did my sister-in-law. Truly miraculously, my brother lived and thrives. So I’ve wanted to go back, but the memories made it feel so cruddy. But now it’s been ten YEARS. I have to get there on her birthday, August 3rd.
PLAN: I’ll drive from Colorado Springs to Memphis to pick up Uncle Bud, then we’ll head into “the sticks” of Tennesse hill country to my mom’s grave. I JUST found out that he wants to come with me as a guide to our family’s history and territory…totally unexpected! I’m so excited!
Funds raised will pay for gas (frickin’ gas prices!), hotel rooms, food, money security if I get stuck, and flowers for my mom’s grave. What we raise beyond the funds needed on the trip will go towards printing photos of the trip for an exhibition and creating a book.
What do you get? If you would like to tell my mom something, to send her a message of thanks, prayer, or anything, I will print it out and read it at her grave, for any contribution.
If you would like to send her a flower for her grave, contribute anything over $20, and I’ll place it there, with your name on it.
If you would like a 5” x 7” print from photos of the trip, contribute anything over $75.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support in making this pilgrimage happen.
Best wishes, Jene’
LINKS
Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/9tKaF5HDL