Dear Deborah Juillerat,
2/28/2012
I wanted to be so broken for your family when I heard the news nearly two years ago now. I wanted to cry for you. I wanted to wail and mourn but, I couldn’t muster it up because I was so cold on the inside. I was paralyzed and blinded by self-pity and unbearable pain. Void of feelings and emotions. My dear, you deserve more than that. You’re memory alone is worth more than that. Driving home tonight and bearing the weight of the world on my shoulders, I thought of you. Suddenly the suppressed pain and angish concerning you was released. And for the first time in a long, long, long time, I could cry again. I cried for you. I cried for me and the missed opportunities that sat before me while you were still here. I never got to tell you that I loved it when you followed me around. I never got to tell you that I loved you and that it was an honor to have been counted worthy enough of an individual to teach you things. I grew quite fond of you doing all that I did. You never were the annoyance that I once complained about you being. I was a stupid kid. And I overreacted. Here God was trying to bless me with your presence and show me what life was really about and I couldn’t get over myself and comforts. What a foolish child I was.
The memories that I have with you and of you, I will cherish forever. You’re courage and how you fought for your life, never holding back; never slowing down; always standing strong again the sickness that plagued your body will forever speak to me and spur me on towards my future. We healthy and yet ungrateful humans need to acknowledge what we have and apply it. Not live in desolate places of regret and could haves or should haves. Friend, you will forever be thirteen and yet, even at that age, you are and will always be one of the bravest people that I know. Thank you for teaching me what true valor is all about. This is a bit late but, love, honesty and tears are not loyal to this thing that we call time. Rest now, Beloved, in the Fathers arms and in the realm of eternity. I have faith that we will see one another again someday.
Sarah J.