24 Seasons(Dear Princess)

Wow. It's been six years since you went home. That fateful Sept. 24th when I received the phone call from my mother that you had died. It's like a piece of me went along with you that day. Things just hasn't been the same since and we all miss you just being there.

I remember the very first day that I met you. I didn't know why you were in the bed all the time and maybe I was too young to get the full details. So as the years went and I got older, we had grown closer. More like a second mother to me, who would praise me for doing good and discipline when I wasn't acting right. Even more confusing to everyone else, they didn't understand why you had that special nickname. (It wouldn't register when someone else tried to call you that.)

Words can't even describe how I felt at the funeral, when I heard that name being read off. I wanted to leave but I had undeserving people blocking me from getting out. I was writing something for you in memory of how I felt, but I could never get those words out so that's why I'm writing this(well typing this letter to you). I love you and miss you so much. Things just hasn't been the same since you passed. It's like everyone has gone in opposite directions with their lives. I just wish you could come back for one day, just to hear you laugh, see you smile and have that wonder atmosphere back.

I remember the Friday night card games, how you gave me my first job($5 every month for keeping the yard clean and waxing the floor), how your family embraced my mother and I. Just typing this is making me think back on so many memories. I remember when you sent me on the wild goose chase to get you some peanuts. I had finally found some for you, only to find out the store didn't take food stamps. So I had to go back to the house to get the actually money and go back around Old Town Mall to get your peanuts.

I'm trying to think of more to say but the words are getting harder for me to type. So I'll leave you with this Diana Ross song. It sums up how I've been feeling for the past 24 seasons.

Love you and miss you always,

Derek