Sunday, July 29, 2007

Always My Angel

Five years ago today was the saddest, yet sweetest day of my life. On that day Nathan's sister Angel Ruth was born, and then went back to Heaven like a wisp of smoke.

Although we think of her frequently, each year our family visits Angel's gravesite on her birthday. I always take a pink rose. This will be the first year Todd, Carla, and Nathan won't be there because they are in Jamaica, but DeeDee, Grandaddy, and I will go and remember our little girl.


We often wonder what might have been had Angel lived. DeeDee always wonders if she would have had red hair like Nathan. She would be five this year and getting ready to start kindergarten.

Shortly before Angel was born I was traveling out West doing a loop of the national parks and got a premonition of sorts. I believe we were somewhere in Utah on one of the nights where we camped out under the stars. I was arranging my sleeping bag and mattress, getting ready to bed down for the night, when these words ran through my head, "What might have been was never meant to be . . . ." At the time I didn't know how they would apply to my life, but I would need those words just a few weeks later, and I have remembered them often over the years.

I love you, my Angel . . .

Uncle Howie