Memories of a son

Dear Dougie:

While those of us you left behind
get busy with real life at times,
you are never far from our thoughts.
It only takes a simple reminder
to bring your smiling face,
your laughter,
your zest for life,
back into our minds,
stirring our hearts
with memories of you.

I know you're around,
watching over the ones you love;
I've felt your presence many times
when things weren't going right.

Thursday would have been your 21st birthday.
How would you have spent it?
Where would you go?
What would you do?

You were on my mind all this week.
I found a sticker that reminded me of you.
I stuck it on my garage wall
so that when I saw it, I would smile again.

I was opening an old box of things
that needed to be unpacked.
A picture fell out before I got the box open
Did you give it a push?
It's of you and Brian on a tractor
on our trip to Minnesota in 1999.
We had such a good time
(even with all the rain and wet sleeping bags!)

"Where you used to be,
there is a hole in the world,
which I find myself constantly
walking around in the daytime,
and falling in at night.
I miss you like hell."
~Edna St Vincent Millay

I will always love you, son.