Butterflies

The last few years my aunt has raised butterflies from caterpillars.  She orders them online, they come in a cup with food.  You leave the caterpillars to their own devices and over a week or so they eat and grow.  Then they make cocoons.  They stay in the cocoons for a week and a half, then they come out butterflies.  You can keep them in a net habitat for a few weeks, but they don't live much longer.

Well, she ordered some for us so we could release them at Ethne's grave.  We got a little over-zealous and ordered them a little too soon (we wanted to release them on memorial day) and they grew up a little too soon.  So we took them to the cemetery today and let them go.

It was a sweet experience to let the butterflies go.  Some flew right away so fast we could hardly see them, some hung around a little bit and we got to hold them.  They flew around while we spent some quiet moments feeling the quiet peace that is ever present at the cemetery and I could only imagine how much fun it would have been to have Ethne there with us.

One of her favorite books was "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and she loved "fufries."  I could just imagine her sweet giggle as the little creatures flew around and I'm certain she would have tried to chase them.

Thank you Debbie, for such a sweet gift.  We enjoyed watching the caterpillars grow and change.  It was such a sweet experience to pay a tribute to Ethne with these beautiful creatures that she loved.