Happy birthday!
Yes, I know I'm a day early, but I wanted to be sure you got the message in time and I wasn't sure how fast your internet connection is up there. I'd like to think it's faster than it is down here, but I understand Time Warner has quite a lock on the market so I wouldn't be entirely surprised if you have intermittent outages there as well.
As you probably know, Nate, Byron and I miss you and talk about you often; I'm sure your ears have been burning! (Do ears burn where you are? Or does something more pleasant happen when someone talks about you, like a super-fluffy kitten licks your face? Just curious.) Nate misses you profoundly. I don't say this to make you feel bad - after all, it is the circle of life! - but rather to let you know how deeply he loves you and how important you still are in his life. True to his MO, he asks lots of questions: "Where did Nanny go when she died?" "Does Nanny know we miss her?" "Is Nanny a fossil now?" My assumption is that you are not a fossil, though I could be wrong there. Are you? Hmm. Might be too early to ask that one. I'll check back in a few million years.
As you probably know, Nate, Byron and I miss you and talk about you often; I'm sure your ears have been burning! (Do ears burn where you are? Or does something more pleasant happen when someone talks about you, like a super-fluffy kitten licks your face? Just curious.) Nate misses you profoundly. I don't say this to make you feel bad - after all, it is the circle of life! - but rather to let you know how deeply he loves you and how important you still are in his life. True to his MO, he asks lots of questions: "Where did Nanny go when she died?" "Does Nanny know we miss her?" "Is Nanny a fossil now?" My assumption is that you are not a fossil, though I could be wrong there. Are you? Hmm. Might be too early to ask that one. I'll check back in a few million years.
In any event, I thought of you the other day as I was driving to pick Nate up from school in the middle of a storm. In the half hour it took me to get there, the EMS system interrupted regular radio programming four or five times; as you know, there were tornadoes touching down all over Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. But at that moment, the weather was just beginning to roll into Cincinnati. As I was sitting in traffic, I saw what looked like a piece of paper floating along, drifting downward, being blown by the increasingly belligerent wind. It shimmered silver and then became dark like a shadow and then it was gone - but only for a moment, as it reappeared just a second later, silver and magical once more. I watched it for several minutes (inching forward in traffic), and at some point it dawned on me that it wasn't just a piece of paper... it was much too far away to be something so small. It must have been something extraordinary in size yet light enough to be carried by the wind. No matter what it was, it was a wonderful little piece of grace in the midst of impending chaos, and apropos of nothing, I thought of you. Or maybe it wasn't apropos of nothing. Was it? Was that graceful ghost of debris you? Were you flitting around on the wind in that otherwordly, ethereal way that only you and your heavenly cohort can do? Were you taking the opportunity to say 'hi' via a piece of scrap metal in a storm? In a childish way I kind of hope so, because whatever it was, it made me feel comforted, safe and warm, as I hope you are now.
Anyway, tomorrow we plan to have a toast of Bailey's Irish Cream (swimsuit diet be damned!) in your honour. We hope you will join us, even if only in spirit. (Yes, that pun was intentional. No, I haven't gotten any funnier since you left.)
With love,
Kimberly
