Mirai "Mary" Sakamoto Barker Found

Jim's Ashes Explained

Mei was now seven years old and very sweet and good-natured for her age. She was heading into the second grade at Lincoln Elementary with Rani, Kamala, Katya, Krishna and Kimiya, whom were younger than her by 5 months. One day after school, she saw what looked to be a silver little vase with a lid on top. On it, a name was engraved on the urn along with the date of birth and date of death in blue:

James Joseph Williams
September 18, 1943-September 11, 2001

On the bottom of the little vase, it said in Hebrew: "May his memory be a blessing."

Guessing by the Hebrew letters, it was from Great Aunt Elise.

"What's that? Is that a vase?" Mei asked curiously.

"It is a vase, my sweet, and a very special one too. We call that vase an urn. Inside it contains a set of ashes or dust." Sweeney explained, kneeling beside the girl who examined the urn. Joshua was on the other side of Mei.

Mei took the lid off and carefully looked inside. It contained a set of ashes inside. She figured it out as she looked up at both men.

When Mei was 4 years old, she would always wonder where Jim was. And her mother explained that he went to be with Jesus; meaning he had died and gone to Heaven. And she had often wondered what had happened to him.

"Are those Grandpa Jim's ashes?" Mei asked sadly.

"Yes." Joshua confirmed with a nod.

"I believe so, Mei." Sweeney nodded as he placed her on his lap tenderly. "He wanted so much to watch you grow, my little love."

Mei nodded, remembering being held by Jim when she was just an hour old newborn baby, and she had often hear of babies hearing his, her or their parents' voices and others.

"My mommy would often tell me that when I was in her tummy, I would hear her voice, Mama Bridget's, David's, Sweeney's and yours." Mei recalled.

"Yes, and he was very excited to meet you, Mei-Mei." Joshua nodded. "And to watch you grow."

The girl nodded.

It took the demon barber of Fleet Street a few moments before he would explain in a way so Mei would understand what her grandfather went through after death. Joshua looked on as Sweeney explained.

"What the funeral director and the assistant did was they put your grandpa in a wooden box—that's a coffin, and they placed it inside a very hot oven...and what that means, Mei, is that he was cremated." Sweeney softly explained.

"Cremated?" Mei asked curious.

"Yes, sweetheart." Joshua nodded. "It is when the body is placed in a very hot incubator and then it becomes powder."

"Some people don't like the idea of being buried 6 feet underground, so they would choose to be cremated. It was Grandpa Jim's last wish." Sweeney added.

"Did it hurt when he was cremated?" Mei asked worried.

"Oh, no...it didn't hurt." Sweeney reassured. "Usually after death, the spirit remains for the final journey home."

"I miss him, Sweeney." Mei said sadly, a stray tear falling down her cheek.

"Miss your grandpa too, sweet." Sweeney knelt in front of Mei and hugged her.

"Oh, Mei-Mei...sweetheart, it's okay." Joshua gently dried Mei's tears as they both hugged her.

"He wouldn't want all of us to be sad, my love...he would want us to remember him." Sweeney soothed.

Tammie came in with a scrapbook, filled with pictures of Jim holding Mei as a newborn baby and the one particular picture with Jim and Mei playing with a dreidel.

"And what's unique about you, sweetheart is that you have your mother's features, her dark hair, David's hair texture, and most definitely, you have blue eyes, Mei." Joshua knelt at eye level tenderly with Mei and stroked the sides of her face. "And take Rani too, she has my hair and dark eyes and caramel skin. That is what makes you and Rani unique and beautiful."

*************************
Stephen picked Mei up from school and from there, they met up with Sweeney whom was placing an American flag down in Lakewood Park to honor the innocent lives taken on September 11, 2001.

Mei remembered parts of it because she was a year old when this happened: she was in her baby bouncer playing happily while the Today Show was airing on NBC, and she pitter-pattered towards the tv, wondering what had went on. She remembered Sweeney protectively covering her eyes from the terrible sight that day. She would often wonder about the twin towers, how glorious in pictures they were.

"Stephen?" Mei asked Stephen.

"Yes, kiddo?" Stephen replied.

"I see the flags across here...did anything happen?" Mei curiously asked.

"Hmmm...I don't know, sweetie, I wasn't there at the time because I blipped for 5 years..." Stephen mused. "...but, I think your uncle Joshua told me what had happened 6 years ago today."

"Hence the reason why I covered your eyes, love." Sweeney added. "You were a year old when this happened. You know how you've looked at pictures of the World Trade Center before what had happened back then?"

Mei nodded.

"Mm-hmm." The girl replied.

"There were two planes that crashed into the two twin towers that time." Sweeney explained further. "And there were two other planes that were hijacked; one crashed into the Pentagon, the last one was headed straight for the White House, but it took a U-turn back around here, and it crashed into a field up east from here; in Shanksville, Pennsylvania."

"3,000 lives were taken that morning and none of them made it past 10:00 a.m." Stephen said sadly.

Mei looked at the newspaper and on the front page were the two twin towers burning. She gasped, shocked.

"Oh my...!" Mei gasped.

"Oh, yes. And it was a horrible fate filled day." Sweeney nodded. "And your grandfather Jim was one of those who lost their lives during the attacks; that was why we had the funeral for him; and then celebrated his life. He was in the South Tower trying to get people out of there and the debris fell on him."

"That's just awful...!" Mei exclaimed sadly. "Who would do that?!"

"A leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and his name is Osama Bin Laden." Stephen explained. "But in reality, Mei, it was something that Reagan did in the 80s that might have triggered those attacks. He colonized Iraq, and that's what led those hijackers to do what they did."

"Why would they do that?" Mei asked sadly.

"There are some people with no sense of morale and who would want to harm others who are innocent." Sweeney explained softly.

"I think we shouldn't have gone to war in Iraq. Because then, Bush would have a moral compass but he chose to seek revenge on those who attacked our country." Stephen agreed. "And how about Cheney lying about the weapons of mass destruction?"

"They're both barking mad." Sweeney agreed, shaking his head.

"War doesn't do any of us good." Mei agreed. "It'll only make things worse."

Sweeney nodded.

"There is a lesson well learned from 6 years ago: we all worked together and united against hate." He said. The barber hugged Mei close. "The best we can do is to hold each other close in times like that."