"More than a stunning debut. It is the announcement of a bold new literary voice"
—Stephen Chbosky, author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Thank you for all the time and energy you spent on trying to make me as happy as possible. Thank you for all the times you would let me know how tough I was. Thank you for not letting me give up when I wanted to. Thank you for being another big sister to me. Thank you for holding me like a baby even when I was 10 years old. Thank you for showing what true love and dedication is. Thank you for allowing me to see what a full life you lived. Thank you for teaching me to show people I care and to stay strong for others when they needed it. Thank you for being selfless. Thank you for protecting me and being there for me when I needed it. Thank you for wiping my tears when I split the beam. Thank you for showing me beautiful music and how to dance to it. Thank you for being the best human you could be. Thank you for loving me when I didn’t know what true love was.

I’m sorry you got into that car. I’m sorry your life got cut too short. I’m sorry that I had to hear ... Read more

I miss you so much. I still think about you constantly. It is coming up on the mark of 7 years since you have passed. I still miss you as much today as I did 7 years ago. You had a real lasting impact on my life. I always told myself I wanted to be like you when I grew old. I miss seeing you and your smile. I loved going with Grandma to visit you. I loved how you let us play in the reclining chair and drink all of your raspberry sparkling water. I loved getting to say hi to everyone. I am so sorry that we have not visited recently to your resting place. I loved releasing notes and balloons up to you. I know that you still got them, even if they did get stuck on the electrical wires a few too many times. I loved when you got to come to the holidays at our houses. I miss seeing you especially those days. I am so glad that we still have a piece to remember you by and include you in all of these wonderful days. You will never be forgotten to our family. You ... Read more

I never thought there would be a day in my life where I would have to let you go. I can say that was the worst day of my life. I remember always promising you that I will be successful and that I would always be ‘daddy’s little girl’ and I am keeping that even now that I am sixteen. I love you so much, and you would never know how much I appreciated that you were in my life, even if it was only for a little bit of a day. I wish I could have told you a proper goodbye before you left. I know how hard of a fight you battled, so I absolutely will not hold you to it. I loved your will and your golden heart. You always put others before yourself, and that is what made you so admirable. It is what I loved about you most. You always spoiled me rotten, and not one day went by without you saying you loved me. I enjoyed when we would wake up extra early on the weekends when you were off and we would all eat a big breakfast. Fried potatoes, biscuits and ... Read more

You died soon after I was born, so I never really knew you. However, I know you from Mom’s memory. I know that Mom loves you because I can feel her love for you whenever she talks about you. It makes me love you too. I love that you made Mom happy in your short life. I love that you loved your children when their dad wouldn’t. I love that you made Mom into such a good mom. I wish that cancer never took you away. I wish that Mom never had to experience your death. I wish I got to meet you. I wish I had the opportunity to actually love you instead of loving the memory of you. I wish I had more time as your granddaughter. The burden of loving somebody is the despair you feel when they pass away, and that’s a despair that Mom has never fully recovered from. I know she tries not to let your death hold her back, and I know she tries to let your memory push her forward, but I also know that she wants more than just your memory, she wants you here, and that has caused to her never ... Read more

It’s been over a year when I last saw you. I still remember seeing your face on my birthday, happy as can be. I know when I first met you, I didn’t know what to think. You were this preppy, joyful person that always seemed to have so much energy. I always wondered what you saw in me. I was known to be left out from most things because I never liked to socialize but you helped me make new friends. I still remember the last day you were at school, you guys had to move up north near Duluth. It was sad but we were happy for you and your sister. After hearing the news of your death, it was a mess at school. I basically cut everyone out because I didn’t know what else to do. I used to turn to you for everything because you always seemed to have the answers for everything when I didn’t. Now that you weren’t there anymore, I didn’t know who to turn to. I felt alone in the world. You were too young to be taken from this world. You had big dreams I knew you could achieve. Every day it ... Read more

It has been many years since you have passed. I always am thinking of you but more recently you have really been in my mind some more. Papaw’s dementia is getting worse and I can see how it is causing my dad to stress. I know you really can’t do anything about it but I wanted to tell you about that. I had a lemonade the other day at Skyline and it made me think of you. It was not sad thoughts though. I enjoyed that glass of lemonade. I thought about how lucky I was to have someone like you in my life the years I did. You were my number one supporter in everything I did. I loved it when you and papaw would try to come and see me play basketball when I was younger. Of course, you would say I did amazing even if I thought I played horrible. I think about you when I see the beach. Countless shells all-around your house before you passed away. I remember holding this big shell up to my ear and listening to the ocean. You made me love the beach even when I had vague memories of ... Read more

You were my best friend. Your life ended much too early. Even though years have passed, I am still reminded of you every day when I look at your old baseball hat hanging above my door. I remember the numerous sleepovers we had where you would wake up early and start playing videogames with my brother. But more importantly, I will not forget you as a teammate. When I was growing up and maturing, you were the one catching my pitches. You played with max effort at all times and never let your height get in the way. I will never forget the time where you were catching and got ran over by the runner. You stood your ground, and the runner was called out because of it to end the game. I am about to begin my driving career. When I drive on the road you got hit on, it reminds me to stay alert and stay safe. I want to let you know that your family still cares about you and misses you. But, they are also moving along and improving. Your brother is doing great in school and your older sister is in art school. Your younger ... Read more

Dear, Dad You were my hero. The person I wanted to always be like. The person I wanted to draw like, act like, sing like, play like, make friends like, just in general be like. I wanted your laugh, your smile that fills people with joy, your sympathy, your empathy, your strength, your humor, your creativity, and your understanding. I still want these things just to be just like the hero I remember. The hero everyone should be. Maybe you hit me, maybe you hated me, maybe I was a bad kid, maybe you sold drugs and did drugs, but it doesn’t change who you were sober. An amazing man who could make anyone laugh, who gave me the correct morals, but who also made me have the dependency of a three year old and the walls of an unrecognizable old man. It’s so hard to trust people after all the promises you broke, how many times you said you hated me then said you loved me, hit me as hard as you could then said you were sorry and did it again. I have to live with the fact that I caused you to want to die. Do you know what it ... Read more

Ich vermisse dich so sehr. Normalerweise stelle ich mir vor, dass die Seelen der Verstorbenen immer bei uns sind, wenn wir an sie denken, aber du hast nie an eine Existenz nach dem Tod geglaubt. Deswegen kommt es mir egoistisch vor, dich praktisch dazu zu zwingen, deine verdiente Ruhe mit meinen Problemen voll zu stopfen. Irgendwo kann ich deine Einstellung verstehen. Du wurdest 92, hast vier große Epochen der deutschen Geschichte miterlebt. Zuerst fünf Jahre der Weimarer Republik, dann das Regime der Nazis unter dem du nur knapp überlebt hast. Kriegsgefangenschaft unter den amerikanischen Soldaten, als du erst 18 warst und dann durch weiteres Glück nach einem halben Jahr wieder freigelassen wurdest. Nur knapp bist du vor dem Grenzschluss aus der DDR entkommen und konntest meine Großmutter kennenlernen. Selbst nach dem Mauerfall hast du die 30-jährige Wiedervereinigung gerade noch so mitbekommen, aber auch, wie es langsam mit Deutschland wieder den Bach hinunter geht, weil sich nur nich wenige an die Nazis erinnern können. Ganz leicht bin ich froh, dass du das nicht mehr miterleben musst. Etwa zwei Wochen nach deinem Tod ist eine Studie in Deutschland erschienen, laut der 27% der Menschen hier Antisemiten sind. 27%!!! Si würdest dich so ... Read more

Eu gostaria de ter escrito algo especial para ti, mas nada será o suficiente para expressar o que você é para mim. Você não precisa desse tipo de exposição. Saiba que eu te amo e você está nos meus pensamentos todos os dias sem falta, assim como está no meu coração.

Estou com saudades, Taz