May | 2016 | Conglomeration of Joy

(All are welcome to attend either or both services)

Memorial Worship Service

(For the purpose of worshiping and submitting our lives to Jesus Christ as Lord)

Saturday, June 11th @ 10:30am

Petra Academy (4720 Classical Way, Bozeman, MT 59718)*Seating is limited. If you’re coming from out-of-town, please be sure to arrive early to ensure a seat. The service will be recorded and a link to the recording will be provided at some future point. There is no child care provided.

*For those who don’t wish to attend this morning Memorial Worship Service, you are welcome to join Sten on a hike up the “M” trail. Meet at the trailhead @9:30am. (Directions: Follow Rouse Ave. north (becomes Bridger Canyon Rd.).Turn left into the signed trailhead parking lot on left)

Celebration of Life Service

(A time to focus on Allistaire’s life)

Saturday, June 11th @ 6:30pm (MST)

The Commons (1794 Baxter Ln E, Bozeman, MT 59718)

A dessert reception (cupcakes, ice cream sandwiches and coffee) will follow the service
Childcare for all ages WILL be available, including a live video feed into the childcare rooms for parents who want to stay with their children
Watch the Service LIVE, go to this LIVE STEAM LINK. You will need to register for a Free Live Stream Account ahead of time to watch (we recommend signing up Friday or Saturday morning so you won’t be delayed in watching the 6:30 service)

Feel free to wear whatever you feel comfortable wearing, though our one request is that if possible, please weary cheery colors. Allistaire was a girl who delighted in the full spectrum of the rainbow and it would be fun for our many bodies to reflect that joy as we gather together in honor of her life. Here are a few examples, the first being an outfit designed by Allistaire on her Toca Boca Tailor App (you don’t have to go quite this wild, but you get the picture):

Awesome Gift Basket Raffle

Sten, Solveig and I have pulled together a whole load of happy (new) items that were things that brought Allistaire delight. We are putting these together in a super fun gift basket which will be raffled off at the reception. Raffle tickets are $1 each (so bring your cash) and all proceeds will go to The Bozeman 3.

The Bozeman 3 is a local non-profit that supports families in Gallatin County whose child has been diagnosed with cancer. The Bozeman 3 arose out of a unique bond between three families forged in their shared experience of fighting for the lives of their children diagnosed with pediatric cancer, far from the support and beauty of their homes in the Gallatin Valley of Montana. They met in the hallways of Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Oncology Unit in early 2012. While each child faced a different form of cancer, these children, along with their parents, possessed a resolve to fight. (Our family is one of these original three, along with those of Stellablue Woods and Caden Shrauger pictured above with Allistaire)

The Bozeman 3 financially supports local families whose child has cancer, provides peer support and helps fund cancer research.

Many of the items included in the gift basket (totalling over $200) are pictured below:

We Could Use Your Help!

We have been absolutely overwhelmed with an outpouring of love and support, not only in the past four and a half years, but again in this exceptionally hard time in the wake of actually losing Allistaire. For those who are still yearning to help, below are a number of key ways we would graciously appreciate assistance:

We asked for 300 cupcakes and have had far more offered – thank you again for your outpouring of kindness and love. At this point we no longer need any additional cupcakes. For those who have already offered, keep Rhonda Mattson’s contact handy if you have any questions (rhondamattson33@yahoo.com (406) 451-6571). And remember, ideally, we would like you to deliver your cupcakes to the main central doors at The Commons by 6:15pm on the day of the Celebration of Life Service, June 11th. A volunteer will greet you at the door to receive your cupcakes. (Below is an example of the look for the cupcakes we’re going for)

We have created a “Wish List” on Amazon of items we could use help purchasing including plates, cups, napkins and sprinkles (to be applied to the ice cream sandwiches). WOW!!!! All the needed items have already been purchased less than 12 hours after posting the Amazon Link, so I have now removed it. Thank you folks!!!!!

The meal sign-up has been updated to reflect request for group dinners for a few days prior and after the memorial services. Provision of meals has been an incredible help and we so appreciate all the tasty food!!! To sign up to bring meals click HERE.

***A note to out-of-town folks: The weather in Bozeman can vary wildly with temperatures down into the 30s at night, potentially, all the way up into the 80s some days. I would highly advise paying attention to weather as you pack and always bring a warm coat.

Thank you to so many folks who have shown their love to me personally and to our family in this past month plus. Thank you for your cards and messages of condolence and how knowing Allistaire has impacted your life, for texts and phone calls, gifts, meals, offers to help and prayers. Please know that all of these have been gratefully received though my ability to thank you is radically diminished and delayed.

The truth is this past near month since Allistaire died, has been a strange, mixed time which I hope to write in reflection upon more down the road. Part of our reality is that I have been very busy with my trip back to Seattle to clear out our Ron Don apartment and say thank you and goodbye to folks and all of the work necessary to put together these two memorial services in honor of Allistaire. In the midst of this I have two dear friends whose children have received the most awful of news – that like Allistaire, their disease has returned and grown and there is now no more treatment available to them. I have a third friend whose child could soon be in the same position, not to mention my two friends who have recently lost their sweet girls. My heart is still very much with these friends and if I have to prioritize my limited time and energy, it will go toward them, despite my inability to give to them in nearly the degree I desire. I have also been able to spend time cleaning and organizing spaces in our home long neglected in my absence and enjoying being outside doing refreshing physical labor like mowing the lawn and hauling limbs that came crashing down under the weight of the fantastic snow storm a few weeks ago.

Mostly I have loved the quiet. There are few sounds but that of bird chatter and wind in the fir and aspen trees. With my brother-in-law, Jens’, idea of his spirit animal being a grizzly bear in mind, we have chosen the Mountain Blue Bird to be a tangible reminder of our bright blue-eyed little girl. Mountain blue birds abound here and a family has taken up residence in the bird house across our driveway. Throughout the morning and day, I can often look out my kitchen window and see the bright blue of sky in the form of bird sitting on the fence rail. I of course don’t actually need a reminder of Allistaire to remember her – she is ever on my heart, in my thoughts and scattered throughout my dreams at night, but it is uniquely lovely to observe a creature of such beauty and loft – a creature that can flit about and sail up into the sky. It helps my heart to not only grieve the loss of Allistaire in my life, but imagine in the smallest way, the joy of the life she now lives.

I look forward, with joy, to seeing many of your faces old and new, who have so loved our Allistaire and cared for our family.

The four of us are bound together in the water. Allistaire is linked to me and I to Sten, Sten to Solveig. We’re out there, floating along, living life. Then something dark comes and latches onto Allistaire and starts pulling her down. I’m flailing, trying to pull her up, my own face and mouth gulping water, waves lashing. Sometimes that thing is so small, we barely notice it. Most often we manage it. Regardless, it’s always there, always threatening, looming. Though the times where the black thing swells and we are all being pulled down into the water is familiar, the terror is always sharp and stinging. Panic. Gasping for breath. But we’ve fought it so long…it is the fifth member of our life.

And then…with no seeming warning, that black presence swells with exponential density…Allistaire is snatched off the line. We wail, we scream, but there’s nothing we can do. We watch her being pulled under, down, down, down into the deep dark of water. She disappears from our sight.

We bouey up.

Our striving ceases. All of sudden there is quiet. No longer need for exertion. There is finally a release of the tension, the ever-ringing backdrop gone. There is no longer a tug, a constant pull on the line.

But now we are three and this relief has come at the cost of our sweet girl, our beloved Allistaire.

It suddenly occurred to me the other day that I have taken the last picture of Allistaire. There are no more pictures to be taken. No new stories to tell.

On Saturday, June 11th, 2016, we will be having two separate services. In the morning around 10:30/11:00am, there will be the opportunity to worship God, to fix our eyes on Jesus Christ who calls those that follow Him out onto the water, who asks us to lay down our lives and entrust our whole selves to Him, the One True God, the Holy God, the God who is other and infinite. In the evening, we will focus our time on remembering our beloved Allistaire Kieron Anderson and the incredible community of folk that have been such an amazing support along this difficult road. All are invited to come to either or both services, but please understand they are for very distinct purposes. There will be more details to come.

**Seattle folks – I’m sorry to say, that while I really wanted to be able to hold some sort of memorial out there, I just don’t think I can make it happen. I’m bone tired and so we invite you to come to the Big Sky State – the homeland Allistaire so loved.

***If you would like to offer housing to folks coming in from out-of-town for the memorial OR if you are interested in staying with a local family, please contact my sister-in-law Jessica at either “pederandjess@gmail.com” or (406) 850-3996.

Lastly, a 3 minute Obliteride promo video featuring Allistaire was just released today. Allistaire and I both have invested a great deal of time and heart into allowing her story to be told in order that people would be compelled to join the effort to accelerate cancer research and find cures faster – so moms won’t have to tell their little girls that they are going to die because there is no more medicine to fight their sickness.

Please, it would be bring me joy, if you would take a moment and see our sweet girl’s smiling face and goofy laugh in this OBLITERIDE VIDEO.

Thank you to all who have so generously given to support me in Obliteride and fund cancer research. For those who have yet to do so but would like to, you can donate in my name in honor of Allistaire and/or those you love who are battling or have battled cancer, HERE. Please know that 100% of funds donated go directly to cancer research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (of which our local Bozeman Cancer Center is connected via Seattle Cancer Care Alliance – a collaboration between Fred Hutch, the University of Washington, and Seattle Children’s Hospital).

Conglomeration of Joy

Monthly Archives: May 2016

Allistaire’s Memorial Service Details – Final Update!