happy birthday

Dear Mom,

Happy Birthday, Mom. Today you would've been 57. It's strange to me that it's been 17 years since you've been gone. That's over half my life now. Words could never express how much I miss you. There is never a day that goes by where I don't think about you, wondering if you know what's going on here, and if you're happy where you are.

I think about the milestones in my life you had to miss--graduating from high school, getting married, having kids, graduating from college. There's a lot more that you're going to miss, too, and that's where so much of my sadness and anger come from. I don't know why you were taken from us so early. I always knew you died too young, but now that I am approaching 40, I have a new understanding of just how young you were than I did at the age of 14.

I want you to know how much you are loved and missed, and how badly I ache for the times here that we won't have.

All my love,
Jenny