Today, we honor and remember Mason's life as today is the 2nd anniversary of his entry into Heaven.  Each of us privately recall where we were, what we were doing, who we were with, how we felt and what we did when we learned that Mason died Tuesday, May 27, 2008. 

Fast forward to today where we are honoring Mason by eating crappy fast food like TOPS burgers or Sonic's chili cheese dogs...he loved that kind of food but also loved to cook and would whip up delicious and believe it or not, nutritious meals.  He loved his community and frequently went a little bit out of his way to make someone's load a little lighter, smile a little brighter, day a little better.  We practice that everyday anyway and will continue to pay it forward.  He also loved his family, the beach and river.  We visited the beach with Teagan today and just soaked up the sun and each other.

There is love and there is life.  There is honor and there is glory.  We are still broken, but are learning to live with our broken-ness and have begun to bud and hopefully blossom.  Mason's journey has not ended as he is alive is those who love him and remember him and in that sweet little girl who spirit soars.

There were many people who took the time to tell us that they remembered Mason today and words cannot express our heartfelt appreciation for letting us know that he is with you too.   

Thanks for taking the time to visit, read and catch up.  Drop us a line.  With love, Lori

The weather has turned beautiful.  The days are longer, the sun bright and warm once again.  Flowers, shrubs and trees are blooming!  The smells are wonderful and the color bursts are truly God's work.

We have all continued to put one foot in front of the other and do our best everyday to move.  Sometimes moving forward, sometimes sliding backward, sometimes going in circles!

We decided that after 22 months it would be okay to clear our dining room area of Mason's clothing. It took two weekends to carefully sort, fold and stack it all!  He had more clothing than Belk's Department Store!!! Some of the shirts still had his scent on them like he just took it off and left it laying around, which he was pretty good at doing.  We found his favorite cargo shorts....even tried them on.  We found his beloved boxer collection, some that are pretty funny, some very colorful, some brand new and some gently worn.  The most amazing thing we found was his enormous surplus of white athletic socks!  Some of which I have been missing and thought I was losing my mind looking for!!!  

We shed many tears.  We shared many memories.  We said good bye, once again to a bunch of stuff that was Mason's and wished for one more day....

Thanks for keeping up with us and for reading our blogs, sharing our photos and for leaving your own message.  Happy spring!   Love, Lori

Time.  It is amazing how quickly time passes you by.  I thought I was here, on-site, last Saturday.  It turns out it was two weeks ago! 

Hours progress into days, days into weeks, weeks into months, months into years and so on.  It is the events during this time that mark where you are, how you are doing, where you've been and hopefully show you where you want to go or at least the direction you are heading in.  If you pay attention to the signs along the way, over time you can see how events shaped your life or the end of it. 

We hope that when you remember Mason's life you are reminded of love, laughter, energy, kindness, athleticism and a pure joy and quality of life.  A lot of time, when people remember someone who has passed away, we often remember how that person died and the events that led up to their demise.  We forget that they lived and loved and dreamed before they died.  Perhaps we can be more present minded and remember how they lived, their legacy left behind that we can emulate and carry forward. 

Mason's zest for life reminds me of a beautiful Golden Retreiver on a soccer field with the sun shining warmly and brightly, chasing a soccer ball, in full stretched out sprint across the entire length of the field with a huge smile on his face.  I also see this happening again, again and again.  

I miss you "girl" and hope each and everyday that we meet in my dreams.  I love you forever, to the moon and back and stretched out across all of the stars.  Thanks for reading...here's to life.  Love, Lori

P. S.  Happy Birthday, Ali!  (02/21/86)  

The opening song of this website is by a band named 'Shinedown' and in it it says ..."by the way, I made it through the day."  We think that, a lot.  Sometimes we say "Whew!" and are glad the day is over.  Sometimes we thank God the day is over and sometimes we thank God for the day.

It is still hard to kick yourself in the pants to get moving.  Getting out of bed is still the hardest and I don't know why because it isn't like we are sleeping or even resting for that matter!

I read this incredible book,  'The Shack' about 4 months after Mason died and understood the words but I didn't truly grasp the meaning until recently.   In this book,  there is a father who's daughter died and he speaks about the great darkness.  The great darkness is a place where sadness sits and I suppose it just sits and hibernates until someone or something jars it awake and you are faced with with this overwhelming grief.  And you become consumed in this massive wave of emotion that is so deep and raw and painful.  You hurt all over again, your head aches, stomach aches, muscles tremor, lungs gasp for air at the memory of the sudden loss of your child, our son, who along with his sister and brother were the center of your universe.   I often wonder why God allows this grief to be repeated over and over and over again, not only with my family but there are millions of families, moms and dads who are experiencing such loss.  I don't understand.

When your child dies it doesn't just break your heart or leave a hole it in where they used to live, but your entire soul down to your core, your center shifts and it can become so far out of alignment that your lose you way, your direction or your inner connection.  Until....it wakes up. I do believe that the light will shine in us again, maybe in a different color or hue or maybe we will shine brighter. Maybe we will even see a rainbow.

I know Mason wouldn't want us feeling this way and he would want to make it better for us and he has by leaving us with Teagan. He is alive in her and boy is he ever!  There is a lot of his bouncing spirit in this little angel!

By the way, if you haven't read 'The Shack", do so.  It has different meanings for each person who reads it but we all walk away with hope.  Thanks for reading and keeping us going...Love, Lori

We had a few blogs that had to be deleted because apparently I wrote in chinese, webease, some sort of ease that turned out to be anything but legible.  I guess something got lost in translation and posting of our site.

As I sat down to write tonight, I was feeling sorry for myself, my family and Mason's friends who truly loved him and lost, but mostly, sorry for myself.  I guess a part me always feels sorry for myself just a bit everyday, but most days I try to push this away and count my blessings.  I thank Mason everyday for the gift he gave us in Teagan.  We also are very thankful for Keri for her choice to keep us close to her and Teagan for becoming a part of our family.  We have experienced such love, joy and hope that we thought was lost and are truly grateful for this phase in our lives, except we are missing a key link, Mason.

I thank God for the time we had with Mason for Mason taught us that happily bouncing through life spreading joy to everyone you meet and doing good, even while giving someone a hard time with a smile, is doing God's work and left a legacy.  Tonight I give thanks.

Thanks for reading....love, Lori 

The Christmas season is upon us.  This will be our second Christmas without Mason. 

Christmas was one of Mason's favorite holidays.  Our thoughts and conversations often turn to him this time of year.  Just this morning we were talking about how Mason always believed there is a Santa Claus.  His last Christmas Eve that he was home, he was 21, he left a note for Santa pledging his goodness all year long!  (HaHaHa, the jury is still out on that!) But let's not let Tyler and Breezy off the hook as they too left Santa a note along with cookies and milk and carrots for the reindeer! 

Santa will come for Mason this year, but he will leave gifts to Teagan in Mason's place.  You see, God sent us an angel in Teagan and we are truly blessed that Mason left us this gift. Mason is still with us, in Teagan.

Teagan and I went walking last night looking at our neighborhood's decorations and lights. It reminded me of the magic of the holiday as we now see it in Teagan's eyes.  She grew more and more excited with each house we visited. (You know some probably thought we were casing their houses as we walked up their driveways and lingered a bit!) She clapped, laughed, squatted and stared at the displays as if the twinkling lights were speaking to her.  All of the lit up animals, snowmen, penguins were there just for her to enjoy.  Our walk together gave me a feeling of hope and love for this little being that I only thought possible with our own children.  Teagan lights up our lives, just as her Daddy's megawatt smile lit up a room! Our walk gave me peace and reminded me that we will all be ok.  Happy Holidays and thanks for visiting. :)

Well here we are at our 2nd Thanksgiving without Mason. But this year was even more different because Tyler and Debra had to work and stay in Orlando. We were also without Breezy because she was preparing with her FSU women's soccer team; getting ready to play Notre Dame the day after.  We have enjoyed our little bundle, Teagan Mason and what a joy she has been!  We missed the turkey bowl at Choctaw for the 2nd striaght year. I remember the year before Mason passed,  when out of the clear blue sky he came home, all sweaty from a great holiday game!  Mason always made sure when he went and played at pickup games he would always say to Breezy "grab your cleats so you can play too" and he always made sure that she got in, no matter who was playing. Thanksgiving reminds us that we are incredibly thankful for the family and friends who continue to share their Mason stories on this site, our emails and in person.  We value this connection and absolutely love the tales.

Well here we are at the first birthday of Mason's little girl Teagan. What a wonderful birthday it was, she looked so sweet in her little outfit that I could not but help to wonder how proud of this little girl Mason would be. He seemed to have that joy for kids that seem's to elude most people his age. He went out of his way to entertain little kids of all ages. Teagan has turned out to be such a blessing that I now understand how sometimes the circle of life seems to take us in a new direction with a new plan of how we are suppose to live. As the holiday season comes upon us again we will again wonder WHY. Thanks again for visiting Mason's web page.  

Well here we are again at the beginning of another school year and the start of soccer, which we all know has always been a big part of our lives.  

Breezy is now off at FSU and already started preseason training.  We believe that Mason would be also playing at the next level since his UWF soccer experience would have been completed last season.

Tyler is still in the Orlando area cooking away and seems to be enjoying it.  Our lives continue to be on the new journey, which we all know is very different than we had planned.  We continue to remember the special person that Mason was and still is to us all, reflecting on the little girl that he leaves in his place to hopefully continue on the journey that he has started.

Teagan has been practicing her walking skills and has several times gone for her "solo" stroll.  She would rather walk holding onto our fingers than without.  She LOVES going outside even if it is just to walk some more.  Teagan's words are the same, Dada, yaya and other sounds that we feel is a sure sign of our next motor mouth.

• This site has been made in honor of him, his life, his death, the future and all that he believed in.  We also plan to use this site as a sounding board for how Mason died and to help others who have experienced the loss of a son, brother and friend.  We have found that our family and friends don't communicate our/their feelings of death, especially that of Mas and try to push it away.  The truth about Mason's death still makes us uncomfortable because we know how he died but not the circumstances surrounding his death. 

• Mason loved life. For all of you who knew him, you have experienced his love first hand either with his giant smile, helping hand or the almighty prank and hope there are many stories to share.  He loved life so much that he never met a stranger instead he always met a friend. He seemed to trust too well and freely.  His faith in his friends is ultimately what caused his untimely death. 

• We really have never been told directly exactly what happened that fateful day but we have heard plenty of rumors.  Two of the rumors circulated the most are.....(1) while out for a day of fun on the last day of the Memorial holiday weekend, 2008, at the river and Mason had a bad headache. Someone actually told us a "friend" gave him something to help his headache and it ultimately worked through his body and killed him.  (2) We also hear but not as much as the first is that someone gave him a gatorade or water that contained a drug that worked through his body and killed him.  The only thing we know for certain is that someone he trusted gave him something for a headache or gave him a drink and 12 hours later he was dead.

So, we set up this website to keep Mason's memory alive and to hopefully obtain information that will help us work through our grief and find a way to move forward and find closure.

We encourage you to visit the link set up to inform you of this epidemic that is claiming too many young lives.  We hope to open awareness and communication not only about Methadone deaths but other topics as well.

Thank you for the time you took and the energy you gave.