Picking up the pieces... 20

In that first year, as Saskia’s Birthday approached, I was fighting hard to KEEP the Death Penalty available here in California, so William Gary Simpson CAN be –

SENTENCED TO DEATH - FOR MURDERING SASKIA… 

SENTENCED TO DEATH - FOR DESTROYING ALL OF US…

SENTENCED TO DEATH - SO KESSA CAN BE SET FREE, AND REMAIN SAFE TO HAVE A LIFE…

SENTENCED TO DEATH - SO HE WILL NEVER KILL ANYONE AGAIN!

Both FATE and KARMA smiled sweetly upon my Saskia on what SHOULD HAVE BEEN her 19th Birthday, as the State of California

VOTED TO KEEP THE DEATH PENALTY…

It was all too bittersweet and tragic that day – November 6, 2012.  

Time does not lessen the torment and anguish…  It exponentially adds to it in each and every single moment Saskia has been robbed of!

So, as this second year approached, with the trial STILL HANGING OVER OUR HEADS – and the added little tidbit of torture that on the 15th of November we will once again be sitting in the courtroom with that MURDERER -

I decided to take Kes away from our nightmare life, to CELEBRATE and HONOR our beloved Saskia.  October 31st, after Kes returned from trick-or-treating, we packed up and set out for Tucson, Arizona.  Every year for the last 24 years during the first weekend in November, Tucson celebrates the LIFE of those we’ve LOVED and LOST.   It was this All Souls weekend we were headed to. We took Saskia’s Celebration of life posters, and her tombstone from our front yard.  I stopped in at ACE Hardware in Tucson, and got two associates to help me figure out how to put them up on posts to carry in the procession, yet easy to disassemble so I could get them back into the car to bring home.

On Saturday, it is a much more religious and formal – MOURNING OF THE DEAD.  The Procession of Little Angels is held in the city park, where people display shrines and offerings for their dead.  This event is free, and you can roam the park viewing each of the loving arrangements of these treasured individuals, you can also display your own shrine if you choose to do so.  There are many arts and crafts to take part in, activities such as wing-making and decorating, face painting, sugar skull decorating, story telling, and theater.   Face painting is not only found here but everywhere throughout the city on this weekend.  The giant URN is here in the center of the park.  Everyone is invited to write wishes to or prayers for the dead, and these are all placed in the giant URN.  As the sun sets, and the candles are lit throughout the park – the time arrives for this evenings Little Angels parade to begin. Angels on stilts lead the children, the fire twirlers, the face painted and costumed alike, on a procession mourning the dead around the Downtown public square to the finale stage area, where artists present a live performance-spectacle.  Anyone and everyone is welcome to join in.

On Sunday, it is a celebration of these LIVES we’ve LOVED and LOST – as more than 120,000 arrived for the ALL SOULS PROCESSION.  “The All Souls Procession is one of the most meaningful and inclusive events in our nation…  What started out as an intimate personal expression is now an enormous hyper-creative vehicle for release and integration of grief and loss for many 10’s of thousands of individual participants.”  People from all over the world come to Tucson, specifically for this event, which is also free.  Downtown today you can enjoy lantern and mask making and face painting workshops, Feasts For All Souls, Altar projects, the Dance of the Dead, and so much more!

We painted our faces, donned our costumes and headed downtown.

Violins and bagpipes warmed up in the background, as the dancers and stilt walkers practiced.  In the hours before the procession started, thousands upon thousands of people arrived bringing their pictures of their beloved – for cherished pets and people alike.  Stories were shared, as were tears.  For Kes and I, it was the first time we really got to celebrate our Saskia since her memorial.  It was nice to share what a truly remarkable and wonderful and giving and loving person she was with others, and for once not be fighting about her murderer’s fate…   Yet, after hearing all these magnificent things about Saskia, upon learning she was Murdered – and HOW - EVERY ONE of them is praying for Gary’s death too.

As the sun began to set on this night, I turned on the lights I finagled around Saskia’s beautiful Prom picture and raised it high above me.  To the backside of her Prom picture, I placed the tombstone from our front yard, and velcroed them together.  On a 12 foot post, Kes carried Saskia’s Paintball picture, and velcroed to that on the other side, was the picture of her coffin.  Together we walked with friends, surrounded in the safety of others also walking to celebrate the lives of those they’ve lost.  As trauma victims, I do not think we could have walked in a crowd that large for anything BUT this.  People were respectful, even nice.  There was no vulgarity, no meanness from anyone at anytime.  So many people, carrying so much love.

The walk itself, is only about 4 miles.  At the end, we found ourselves in a giant field.  At the end of the field, where the stage was set up, we stood together and watched the grand finale performances.  Finally, the giant URN was lifted by a crane, that places it high above the stage – and it was lit.  As the flames grow high and higher, lighting the entire audience and filling the night sky, the wind gently blows all our released prayers and wishes to our loved ones far from us.

I’m hoping you are hearing from Kes and I tonight, Saskia.  We love you.  We miss you so much.  Our beloved daughter, sister and best friend forever my darling!

Respectfully, the dead should always be honored.  And here, Saskia finally was again.

For from the beginning, thanks to the Murderers hateful lineage, Saskia’s beautiful Prom image was STOLEN TOO, and used in the most disrespectful and ugly way imaginable…

Hopefully now, when doing a google search for Saskia or myself, her beautiful Prom picture will now appear as it only should have.  With the Dignity she is so deserving of, with the Honor and Respect we all have for her.

Cat Burke

November 6, 2013

I was driving through the desert this morning, as your Birthday came baby... You were to be 20 today! My tears flowed, for missing you so much, and for all that you've so horribly missed out on!

Kes and I walked the All Souls Procession this weekend to honor you, and wrote many messages to you...  OH, how I hope my prayers are answered SOON…

Aching to be with you, more than words can ever say -

I LOVE YOU SASKIA!

-Mommason — with Saskia Burke.

Phyllis: My heart breaks for you and I send prayers for the strength to get through the firestorm of the living hell parents of murdered children endure.

Ida : One more birthday she was cheated out of, by a murderer. And all her birthdays to come will be just as empty and just as tearful as this one. Thinking of you Cat, and the agony this empty birthday is bringing to your sore, hurting heart.