Mail from Home

Damn it. Anais made me cry again. I received a box from home for Father’s Day, and on the bottom of it was a little scrapbook she’d made called “Do you Remember?” And I was fine until I got to the last page, where there was a picture of us at my brother’s wedding. I am in my mess dress dancing with Anais in her beautiful gown. She wrote “I’ll always save a dance for you.” And now my baby’s going off to high school without me. Shit.

Neecy, if you read this, do you know that I still have those third-place ribbons from the race we ran together at McGuire? The one that started over near the kiddy play ground where I carried you half of the way? They are taped onto the wall next to my desk, just like they were at Scott, and before that in Spain, and before that at Fort Dix. I look at them and think of you every single day.