Beautiful Memory of a Beautiful Boy

While Jhon watches his World Cup game I cozy myself to write this special entry about this beautiful memory of our baby Marcus. It's been long overdue.

During the darkest moments of our grieving, Jhon and I aided ourselves with helpful reading and journaling. Though the most important aspect of our healing is prayer. We surrendered all our worries and heartaches to God and prayed, foremost for the eternal repose of the soul of our son. Until now we see to it that we pray for our little angel everyday. During the course of our grief we have proudly become prayerful.

When the 40th day of Marcus was reaching (March 17th), I thought of giving our families something notable to remember our son with. It was going to be his Send-Off To Heaven. I did not want him to be forgotten in time. I wanted something that they can keep with them and always remember our son by. I wanted them to also continue to pray for him, as well as to be reminded to pray. That was essentially the remembrance and the gift we wanted to give them of our Marcus... the gift of not just any jewelry, but the gift of prayer.

When Ate Belle gifted us with amethyst bracelets early on in our grieving we were reminded of the healing attributes of crystals. The amethysts truly helped lessen the heaviness of our heartbreak. We wanted to share that healing to family as well. We hoped for Marcus' remembrance to heal them not only through prayer but through the healing properties of precious minerals as well.

Prayer and healing crystals combined led me to the thought of a rosary bracelet. Something that we can all wear as often and will lovingly remind us of our darling Marcus. After much research, we came up with a design that will suit all ages and lifestyle of each family member. We decided to use the amethyst because it is Marcus' birth stone, it represents him perfectly, and its healing properties are appropriate to our needs. The rose quartz because of its particular trait of healing a broken heart.

AMETHYST

Power Stone

It is used as a dream stone and to help insomnia. Put an amethyst under your pillow to bring about pleasant dreams, or rub it across your forehead to offer relief from a headache.

Protection Stone

Ancient Egyptians used the amethyst guard against guilty and fearful feelings. It has been worn as protection from self-deception, as well as a protection against witchcraft. The amethyst has long been used to open the spiritual and psychic centers, making it one of the power stones. It is also used as a meditation aid when worn as a necklace.

Wisdom Stone

The amethyst is known as the Bishop's Stone and is still worn by Catholic Bishops. The amethyst symbolizes piety, humility, sincerity and spiritual wisdom. It is thought the amethyst is the perfect stone to symbolize The Age of Aquarius.

Healing Properties of Amethyst

Amethyst is a gemstone often worn by healers, as it has the power to focus energy. A healer will usually wear several pieces of jewelry with amethysts set in silver, especially an amethyst necklace. The person to be healed will have an Amethyst to hold while the healing is being done. The healer will place another piece of Amethyst on the area of the body in need of healing, the heart or lungs usually.

Amethyst is used for problems in the blood and in breathing problems. Amethyst crystal clusters are used to keep the air and life force in the home clean and positive.

Amethyst clusters, points or several tumbled Amethysts placed in a window that receives sun most of the day are very beneficial to use in healing and to heal negativity in the home. Place Amethyst clusters, points or several tumbled Amethysts in moonlight and everyone in the home will be feeling calmer. Using an Amethyst as a meditation focus will increase the positive spiritual feelings. Amethyst helps overcome fears and cravings. It also helps relieve headaches.

ROSE QUARTZ

Your marriage can have more sparkle and fire when you keep a rose quartz under your pillow. You will look younger too.

Rose quartz is known as the love stone. It helps the user feel a strong sense of self-worth, therefore being worth love. Rose quartz is the stone of universal love. It is also the stone of love in marriage. When worn in jewelry the wearer feels a sense of self-worth.

Healing Properties of Rose Quartz

Rose Quartz has a gentle vibration of love for the owner. It gives inner peace and helps in all matters pertaining to love in all its forms. Rose Quartz opens the heart to love. It also helps as a rejuvenator to the skin. It is a lovely stone for a young person.

It is said washing the face in water charged by rose quartz will help fade wrinkles and keep the skin young.

Jhon mentioned to me early on that Ferdi wears a necklace with Marcus' name on it. That definitely touched me and I wanted each family member to carry his name with them as well. We thought to include it with the rosary to make it even more special. Nothing is more fitting than a heart charm engraved with his beautiful name. A detail that will truly make the rosary his own and close to each member's heart.

It was very important to us that this project be flawless and overall perfect. This was to be a memory of our dear Marcus. We knew it was not a jeweler we needed but a skilled and meticulous beader. The timing of Jhon finding Ysa online was perfect, almost serendipitous.

I feel it is suiting to not only to reiterate our journey with Ysa but to offer her with a testimonial as well because if not for her dedication, Jhon and I would not have accomplished this project with 100% satisfaction.

Ysa Yason (The Charmed Life) specializes not only in making bead accessories but most importantly she is a crystal enthusiast and believer who has an expert eye in such. She promotes the positive well-being that crystals represent. When she emailed me the amethyst and rose quartz she planned to use for the rosaries, Jhon and I knew she was the one we wanted to execute our baby's special remembrance.

From the get-go after Jhon mentioned to her how we planned to use the rosaries, she expressed her sincere interest and dedication to the project. Even weeks after their initial talk, she did not hesitate to take on the task.

"Although I have many projects as of the moment, it is my honor to be making this very special project in remembrance of baby Marcus, it will be one of my most special. ... I am very touched with your story and I pray for your peace."

Jhon and I encountered quite a number of challenges during the course of this project. We knew we were going to be as detailed as possible to ensure that each rosary will last forever, if not, at least withstand some physical stress especially since it will be used by our young and very active nieces and nephews. This nagging need for perfection and attention to detail led us to delay the distribution of the rosaries until they were perfect.

We personally chose and bought the more important components ourselves from the heart charm to the Cross and Mother Mary/Divine Mercy pendant. We also made sure that we used sterling silver chains to perfectly match the healing crystals. Ysa's valuable suggestions as to the more resilient designs to use for the chains were very helpful not to mention beautiful.

We appreciated that Ysa addressed every concern with the same meticulousness. She delivered with flying colors. Her attention to detail was evident in each rosary bracelet. From the samples to the finished product it was obvious she took her time working on each individual piece to make it perfect. She honestly exceeded our expectations.

Ysa assembled 29 rosary bracelets in less than 5 days. When we received the finished pieces we felt very excited and relieved at the same time. We were obviously looking forward to finally distributing one of our baby's most precious memories yet we were also very relieved that we were giving away something truly beautiful to look at.

Together with the package that arrived was a personal handwritten note from Ysa. Re-reading what she wrote now, I can't help but feel privileged, her words were warm and sincere and I was definitely moved on how this project truly meant to her. Without disrespecting the personal nature of her note, I would like to share her words for it is a true testament of how Marcus touches people's lives in many ways.

Dear Marjorie and Jhon,

This is such a special project and I feel so honored that you trusted me in making these bracelets.

This was a learning experience for me in many ways and I say from the bottom of my heart that your son is truly an angel, touching so many people's hearts.

You are blessed and I wish you the best.

Yours,

Ysa

I thanked Ysa via text message and relayed how very pleased we are of the rosaries. There was no doubt she took extra effort into making each rosary special. It was so diligently assembled that it looked almost machine-made. Her response message brought tears to my eyes.

"... Of course you know this already but I just want to let you know I feel that your son is always watching over you. All I could think about while doing every piece was 'make it nice for them, make it nice for them.' There were many times I had to redo a piece to make it better. I'm thinking now it was your little angel whispering to me to make it nice for his Mama and Papa. I was kind of embarrassed to tell you that 'cause we don't know each other but I just need to let you know that. That's why I included in the note that you're blessed because you have an angel watching over you. Take care."

Even before she expressed her thoughts on this project I already knew I was going to write about it. This project brought about a lot of emotions because it is too special to us. And I was jubilant that it produced such beautiful personalized pieces. Ysa made it happen. I was very thankful for the work that Ysa did that I told her of my planned blog entry. I wanted to keep it mum until the post but I was filled with gratitude that I could not help but tell her in advance. I hope she humors me as I share her response message yet again.

"Oh Marjorie, thank you so much. That made me teary eyed again. This project reminded me so much why I love what I do. Thank you and I truly wish you the best. Thank you for sharing your story through your blog. My heart aches for you, I can't say I understand 'cause I can't even imagine the grief. I pray for you and I know it is but little consolation but please know your son's short time touched so many people more than a person who lived a hundred years. I truly wish you the best."

I opted to share her messages because I feel hers is a sincere expression of how Marcus' magic lingers. I believe our son's life truly touched her and it definitely showed in her work. I shared her messages too to show how good of a person she is and how her honesty shows she has a big heart. I am also very thankful of her because she made it happen not only for Jhon and I but especially for Marcus ultimately.

In truth, we were quite concerned on how to make a handmade piece as flawless as possible. We knew there were a number of limitations when it comes to handmade accessories. We almost came to a point of having them 'finished' by a jeweler. But Ysa put our worries to rest. She saw to it that the components she used were of quality and the construction of each was carefully assembled. It is not surprising she regarded herself as an artist of her craft. This is more than just a business for her, it is her passion. And it showed.

Thank you Ysa. And thank you for acknowledging the life of our Marcus.

After having them blessed, Jhon and I gave away the rosary bracelets on Mama Myrna's birthday, June 14th. We felt it was appropriate that day because it was a day of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for yet another blessed year for our Mama (many more years to come) as well as thanksgiving for our little angel Marcus. We wanted to give each rosary personally instead of just having them delivered. It was Marcus' gift to them.

As originally planned in our little angel's Send-Off To Heaven, we distributed each bracelet with our baby's personal prayer card and a note describing each respective healing crystal, all package in a little silver paper bag. After much effort that we put into executing this project, Jhon and I placed a personal note inside each box to express how truly special this rosary means to us with the hope of them treasuring it equally.

Ate Belle who witnessed the process we went through into transforming these rosaries noticed for a fact that they are truly beautiful. Every time I see her, I see her wearing Marcus' bracelet and wristband with pride.

Our Mama Myrna wears hers proudly as well. She does not wear any other accessory but the rosary.

Our sweet niece Daniela girl, wears her bracelet to school and makes sure she keeps the box ready in her bag for safe storage.

Our darling Cielo pie also brings her rosary bracelet safe in its box to school everyday and wears her wristband even to sleep.

Our sweet nephew Miguel, wears his wristband "all the time even when he takes a bath" as he proudly says it. He also brings his rosary to school everyday as they require them in Ateneo.

Our young lady niece Bea never takes off her wristband. When I see her, she wears her rosary proudly and with much care.

Our big boy nephew Jake wears his wristband to school everyday.

Regina messaged me after receiving her rosary and said she will never leave home without it. Marcus' prayer card is kept in her wallet for her to look at always. She lovingly mentioned that "nothing will ever come close to this gift." She messaged Jhon recently and said she has gotten numerous compliments from wearing the bracelet.

Jhon and I continue to pray everyday for our son and for our healing. Though now we pray using the very special rosaries we have in remembrance of our Marcus.

We wish for our families to experience the same healing and hope the rosary bracelet provides us and the meaning it ultimately represents... the loving memory of our dear little angel Marcus.