The Significance of a Rose

With so many emotions and feelings being stirred over Johnathan's birth, I think perhaps the small gesture by my Dad sums up how I've been feeling. One Red Rose. Without saying a single word my Dad said everything my heart's been feeling. Let me explain...

...When our dear Daniel Cole was born on September 14, 2004, a single White Rose was taped on the outside of the door of the hospital room that I stayed in after his delivery. It was a gentle reminder to the hospital staff that we had lost our child. While other moms had blue and pink ribbons on their doors announcing the joyous arrival of their children, our door boasted not of new life, but of a precious life lost. A week or so after Daniel's death my father presented me with beautiful poem called A White Rose Upon the Door. In the poem he described the emotions of being in the hospital, surrounded by others waiting expectantly for new babies to arrive, and how in the midst of such happiness one room, ours, was clouded by the grief of losing our child. The poem is near and dear to my heart, and was written out of such love from a grieving grandpa.

The day we were discharged from the hospital after Johnathan's birth I made this comment to my momma..."No White Rose for me." What a bittersweet feeling to realize that I was able to take our baby home, happy and healthy, yet at the same time remembering the children that were taken to our True Home, Heaven, before me.

Fast forward to the Friday, a week and a half after Johnathan's birth, when my Dad and sisters, Glenna and Greta came to visit. Dad walked up with a single Red Rose in his hands, and at once all that I'd been feeling was summed up in that single flower. The red blush of the bloom representing the red blood of life that flows in our sweet Johnathan. Never has one flower meant so much to me. So, thank you, Dad. Without saying anything, you said everything. I love you!