As some of you may remember, before James’s passing, one of his last wishes was to see the northern lights. We were able to see the lights during our trip to Alaska back in October of 2019 with our compadres, however the lights were extremely faint.

We decided to try again and this time we took all the kids with us. That trip was in February 2020. Unfortunately, after several late nights, we didn’t get a glimpse. Me being the determined wife that I am, I told him that I was going to book another trip as soon as possible to fulfill his wish. He told me that it would be too much for him physically as he was too tired to make another trip and instead asked me and the kids to chase the lights for him. At that time, I decided that Alaska would be a place we can go to visit as a family to keep his memory alive and to also ensure that we fulfilled our promise to him.

I decided that we were going to go back and try to see the lights again on the same dates as last year with the same AirBnB and the same exact itinerary to do his favorite things. The night before we were scheduled to leave, I got an alert that our flight was cancelled due to inclement weather. I was devastated. Now anyone who knows me knows that I never give up when I am determined to do something. So I booked us on an earlier flight. An hour later, that flight was also cancelled. After exhausting every option available, I was able to find a flight leaving out of San Francisco but that meant we had to move quickly. Keep in mind that this was my last ditch effort to get us on a plane. Before I knew it, all six of us were sitting on the plane waiting for take off. I was so excited and had a good feeling that we were going to be able to see the aurora borealis this time around.

Days 1-3 were mostly us getting settled in and acclimating to the climate and site seeing a few things. It was now Day 4 and we had no luck with the lights. This made me feel so sad and discouraged. On our 5th and final day there the weather had given us a low probability to see the lights and I almost gave up. We then found ourselves with a couple hours to spare before heading to the airport to catch a red eye flight, so we decided to go to a popular spot called Creamer’s field and wait it out there in hopes that we would get a glimpse of something before it was time to go.

While sitting in the car to keep warm, as it was -24 degrees outside, I looked over and saw people outside their car taking pictures. Me being pessimistic, I shouted out loud, “I don’t think those are the lights, that might be fog”. But the pessimism turned into pure joy as we all began to shout out loudly “the lights are coming through”. We immediately jumped out of the car and started to take pictures. Sure enough it was the northern lights and it brought me to tears. I wanted to share this moment with our compadres (his best friends) since they joined us for our trip back in 2019. I facetimed them as Arianna facetimed my mother-in-law. They were all so happy for us!!

We did it, we kept our promise and chased the lights for my beloved husband. It was an unforgettable moment to be surrounded by our kids and granddaughter. I like to think James had something to do with this as what are the odds that the lights would appear one hour before us having to leave to the airport to catch our flight. The only thing missing was our oldest son, Jacob. He wasnt able to make the trip with us, but we will be back again next year, the same dates of course, and he will be with us to share the moment.

These past 10 months without James have made me learn so many new things about myself. It’s crazy to say this, but I am still finding new ways to fall in love with him again.

It fills my heart to know that everyone reading this will also share and partake in this joy. We got to experience something amazing and it made me appreciate the earth’s beauty. Thank you James for still making our lives special!!