precious
little, but since I cannot be here physically, know that I am here with you in
spirit on this special day.
There is so much I want to tell you and I will do my best
to say the things to you that I would wish to say and to teach you those things
I wish to teach, through these letters.
You’re becoming a young woman Morgan and soon you’ll
start looking at boys in a different way if you haven’t already been doing so.
Don’t just give yourself up to just any boy. I respect you Morgan, and you respect
yourself, so make the boys respect you as well. Make your future first love
treat you well and if he doesn’t respect his mother he won’t think much of you
either. Don’t get pregnant! There, I’ve said it so I won’t harp on it. Let me
just say this. Children change your life. Having children is the best thing in
the world as well as the most terrifying, and most agonizing thing in the
world. Don’t take any chances until you are ready for those changes. Enough
said.
I love you dearly my darling daughter. Whatever happens
in your life, no matter what, know that I will always love you. There is
nothing you can ever do that would have made me stop loving you even had I been
still alive and now that I am gone, you still can’t make me NOT love you. You
are my reason for living; you and Jaime. He is young, innocent, and less
prepared for the world. Promise me you’ll look after him. You will always be a
success no matter what you do in life you won’t have the struggles Jaime will
have and he will need you; especially now that I am gone.
Do your best in school. Most of us spend the better part
of our lives at work so find something you love and do well at it so you won’t
be miserable working. Go to college that is the key to your financial success.
Go to college and you’ll be able to do things you want to do most in life.
I remember the day you were born like it was yesterday.
You were so tiny and fragile I thought how can this little person grow up to be
a strong young woman one day? At that time, when you were six pounds three
ounces, it seemed impossible. Yet here you are on your 14 th birthday; not so fragile anymore are you?
If I had but one birthday wish for you Morgan it would be
happiness. To me it doesn’t matter what you do so long as you are happy. Be
happy my beloved daughter and one day we’ll meet again.
Love Mom.
I’ve received many such letters over the years and I
treasure each and every one of them. I keep them in my safe deposit box at the
bank. I feel like as long as I have those letters my mother is somehow still
alive. There is one letter I have not received and I’m sure I have one. The
letter I’ll most certainly get if I get married. In a way I am glad she won’t
ever know that I didn’t get married. I don’t do relationships and I am
certainly not marriage material. In that I have failed my mother who I am sure
wanted to see me married off. No one in their right mind would want to saddle
themselves with an emotionless cyborg. That’s me the partial human woman who
can’t cry. I’m like the tin man in the Wizard of Oz who when he cries he rusts
and cannot move. Maybe that’s what will happen to me if I cry.
Each and every birthday I got a letter from mom and it took
the sting out of her death; well some of the sting at least. Each time she had
something different to say to me. Sometimes it was motherly wisdom and
sometimes it was just her thoughts and feelings. She shares those things with
me so that I get to know her better. It’s important for her that I see who she
really is as more than my mom, but as a person too.
Then my love of my life Joshua Harris left me for Mindy
Casey when I was in the tenth grade. I don’t know how my aunt even knew
anything about it. I thought I had been pretty secretive, but nevertheless, on
my bed waiting for me to come home from school was the letter about love and
mending a broken heart.
My dearest daughter,
I
Robert Swartwood, David B. Silva