Memory in Motion

MEMORY IN MOTION

As parents, we all want our children to be remembered. This does not change once a child dies. What does change is that people will often stop talking about our children once they no longer exist in this physical world. For a bereaved parent, our children will always exist. They exist in our hearts, in our memories and we are always connected by our unconditional love.

Memory in Motion has been created as a way to remember and honor deceased children in a healthy, active and positive manner.

Biking was always an important part of Kenny’s life. When he was old enough to sit up with a helmet on his head, he was on the back of my bike, strapped into a seat. On a camping trip to Cape Cod, we rode our bikes to P-Town. Kenny’s dad was behind us laughing. We stopped to see what was going on and he said Kenny had fallen asleep. His head was bobbing up and down with the motion of my legs.

Kenny outgrew the seat and graduated to a cart being pulled behind my bike. We would ride to a park a few miles from our home for him to play. Then go to the store for a treat, usually ice cream, before peddling home. Once he was big enough for his own bike, we were three bikers. One day the training wheels were removed. Off for his first ride alone in the driveway. Before either of us knew what happened, he crashed. The bike was fine, his knees and hands were scraped, tears were shed. Into the house to get cleaned up and band aids applied. Ice cream made it all better. Being typical Kenny, he was determined to master riding his bike without training wheels before his father got home from work. So out the door he went being very careful not to have a second crash.  We continued to camp, using our bikes to get around.

As Kenny grew and became more adventurous, so did his biking. He progressed to an elaborate mountain bike. Little boys grow into big boys heading off to college. Kenny packed his car, loading the mountain bike on top and headed out to Flagstaff, AZ. He would ride his bike to the top of the mountain to watch the sunset, then ride down and prepare for the next day of classes.

At the end of his freshman year, Kenny started the long drive back to Vermont. He never made it home to Vermont, but his mountain bike did.

Now that Kenny’s biking experience has been shared with you, I am hoping his story has inspired you to share your rides in his memory or in the memory of any child who is deceased by logging your ride into Memory in Motion. Please enter the name of the child you are riding in memory of. This is all free – yup, absolutely free. The goal is to have enough people logging their rides so that within one year, the rides will have been connected from coast to coast and border to border touching all states.

Thank you for your participation as you enjoy the ride.

For more information you may contact Ann Lindner, Kenny’s loving mother, at [email protected]. Please enter Memory in Motion in the subject line.

The URL to log your ride is: https://www.strava.com/clubs/memoryinmotion 

Guidance from STRAVA about how to use the app are: If the person is using the Strava application on their phone and selecting to Record, it will automatically track their ride and once uploaded…will show the map of their route.  If they use the + sign on the top left-hand corner of the application and just enter the ride information (distance, time, etc.), it won’t provide a map because it requires the phone or other device (Garmin, fitbit) to track the actual route.  I found this link that may be helpful in explaining a bit: https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/216919417-Stationary-Treadmill-Activities Once they upload their activity, their ride in this case, it should show up right away under Recent Activity.