7 Years Today

Dear Robert,

It is Saturday evening of Labor Day weekend 2007 as I write this letter to you.  At this time seven years ago your family and friends were frantically searching for you.  We knew something was wrong.  We just didn't know that earlier that day you had died when your truck went over an embankment on a country road near our house and landed upside down in a pool of water.  They tell me you were knocked unconscious because you didn't have a seat belt on, and that you never knew when your lungs were filling with water and taking away your last breaths.  I pray that was the case, and that you died a peaceful death, if there is such a thing.

Sometimes it seems like it has been centuries since we heard your truck pull into the driveway, and as you walked into the house we would hear  you say  "What's for dinner?"  And sometimes it seems like it was yesterday.  God only knows what I would give to hear that now, or have one of your bear hugs and hear you say "What's up, old man?"  And your laugh.  Son you have no idea how much I miss that laugh, and those brown eyes of yours that swept many a pretty girl off her feet.  You may have died seven years ago but your memory has never died.  Robert, you touched so many lives in your 20 short years. 

I often think of how well you were doing in college, and of the plans you had for your life.  And so often, I wonder who you'd be today.  Kenny Chesney said it best in a song that I think captures what every parent feels that has lost a son or daughter.  Yeah Son, I do often wonder, who you'd be today.

I love you Son.  Rest in peace.

Dad

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