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 To my cousin, Melissa, I love you and miss you and you will forever remain in my memories and in my heart...  It’s amazing to me how much the two of us had in common. I was sitting at her memorial service, listening to my Aunt Sam talk all about Melissa, and some things I already knew… but as a cousin who lives almost all the way across the country, there were some things I just didn’t know about her. Yes we both love to dance, and we both love photography, but I found out about our shared passions for music and drama, and realized how similar we were in the paths we chose in life. I realize now what kindred souls we were, separated by distance. It makes me sad we weren’t closer, and able to spend more time together, but I cherish the memories I have and am thankful for our times together.  I miss her a lot, and of course I have my regrets…not keeping in touch more is at the top of that list. But more than anything I just think about the happy times we had. I don’t remember a time in my life that was shared with Missabear that wasn’t a happy one. She had a way of keeping everyone around her smiling. It’s going to be hard now when I go to visit family and she’s not there – when the two of us were together we were inseparable. I think my mom even got mad at me a few years ago when we were in Kansas, because I wasn’t spending enough time with the rest of my family. What can I say? As the youngest two cousins, we didn’t want to sit and hear boring adult talk. We wanted to have fun and be kids. And that’s how our relationship always was… Now that I’m nearing twenty and am definitely not a “kid” anymore, and I don’t have my cousin to share youthful excursions with, yes, it will be hard, it will be sad, and it will be different…but hopefully I can lead on in Melissa’s tradition and get the “older” generation of the family to be 3 years old with me from time to time…    | |
