A few weeks before Christmas 2020, craziest year of our lives, my family got in the car and went to see a really cool light show in a mall parking lot. It left me feeling hopeful and put me in a happy mood considering the pandemic had everyone in a funk.
We stopped to change Mikey on our way home. Why we didn’t just drive home to do it, since we were only about 10 minutes away, well this Godwink must’ve been the reason…
We got into a left turn lane, and a car kinda snuck in front of us. It took me a second to realize that the license plate on the car read exactly what my button hanging from the rear view mirror read, “WE 🧡 DW.” The license plate read, “WE LV DW.” It was a Lexus too, and Derek drove that kind of car.
I literally could have jumped out of my seat, I was so pumped to see it. I knew I had to take a picture otherwise no one would believe this! It couldn’t have been a blatant sign could it?
For Derek’s 40th birthday, I had these buttons made for everyone who came to it. I’ve had mine hanging in my car ever since. It’s a reminder of him, not that I need reminding that he’s gone, but one of happiness and celebration in the midst of immense sadness. We celebrated his 40th birthday only 6 months after he died. I thought the buttons would be a nice way of memorializing Derek. A little keepsake for people who loved him.
I posted a picture of the license plate with the story on social media so I could share it with his friends and our family, and got a lot of nice responses. It’s just one of those things you’d never expect to happen at a time it would mean the most.
Derek died a week before Thanksgiving so that holiday along with Christmas will never be the same. This Godwink to me shows that he is still with us, or maybe it’s God acknowledging our ongoing love for Derek even though he’s gone.
Whatever the case may be, it was amazing and I’ll never forget that moment.
Of course, I knew I had to see the face of the driver of the Lexus. So Mike hurried to catch up to him. He was an older man in his 50s or 60s. I kept thinking that he may have lost someone too. Maybe he lost a child, maybe a son. Maybe his family felt the need to memorialize just as we had. Little did this man know that his plates meant more to me than anyone else driving past him that night. His memory of his DW still lives on like ours.
Grieving Sibling Loss 