In June, 2000 it was my third Fathers day without my son Christopher. He died in an industrial
accident on September 28, 1997. This was such a lonely day for me as my only surviving child
had been out of the country for over a year. I had no one to celebrate being a father with. It
started as a very dark and dismal day indeed.
After trying to avoid the trip to the cemetery for most of the day, there was nothing left to keep
me away. So my wife Robyn and I went to the cemetery to visit Chris' grave.
While deep in emotion and feeling like I had nothing to look forward to, we were sitting by
Chris' headstone remembering how much fun he was and how terribly sad it was not to have him
to hold and tell him that I loved him. I was wishing so badly that he could be here to spend the
day with me.

I had put my head down to let the tears run off my face. I felt a small breeze come up; it was an
unusual breeze in that it came from the northeast, which in June is not a common occurrence. I
looked up and noticed this balloon with a lead weight dragging behind it, dancing ever so slowly
towards me. We watched it dance across the grass and then the balloon bounced directly into my
chest. The balloon had a message that I know was from my son Chris. It said "Worlds Greatest
Dad". I was so surprised and happy to have received this "Father's Day Gift". I thanked him for
the wonderful gift and for cheering me up. There was no one else around or near us; we were not
sure where the balloon had come from. I did not notice it at the time but a woman and her 2-
year-old son had come to visit her father's grave, which was about 150 yards away from Chris.
Robyn and I sat around for another fifteen minutes or so and then decided to leave.
When we left to go to our car Robyn noticed that the lady visiting her Father was frantic and
screaming that her son had locked himself in the car. We went over to see if we could help. The
son had locked the doors to the vehicle, the windows were rolled all the way up and the mom had
left the keys inside. The outside temperature was very warm and the little boy was starting to
sweat. The police had been called to come and open the door but they were not sure that they
could get there very soon. I was just about to break out the back window when Robyn said let's
try to get him to open the door. She took the balloon and tried to coax the little boy to open the
door. She told him through the glass that she would give him the balloon if he would just push
the button. She kept pointing to the button that would release the door lock. Suddenly the lock
popped open, we didn't notice it at the second the lock popped up, but later we realized that the
boy's hand was no-where near the lock when it opened. We got the boy out and Robyn gave the
little boy my Fathers day gift from Chris. The boy's mother looked at the balloon and asked
where we had gotten that balloon because she had left a balloon just like it on her dads grave the
day before. We looked for his balloon and it was gone. It turned out to be the same balloon that
had bounced across the grass and bumped into my chest earlier. The balloon was now in the
hands of his grandson.

The events of that day have been with me ever since. First of all, I know that my son sent that
balloon to me to help me through my sad and lonely Father's Day, and that he also helped to save that boys life.

Mark Kingery, TCF, Salt Lake City, Utah