Dear Morgan,
The bad times are laced with anguish and pain, the good times filled with disbelief – still. It is two and a half years since you were murdered and it’s still hard to fathom. The wellspring of your great potential lost. Writing this Morgan, I find myself punching down hard on the computer keys, like a typewriter, as if stroke force will prevent your erasure from the world. How can you be over? How can we shoulder this burden for the rest of our days? But we must. Really, there is no other choice. We must relinquish control and old expectations – over, and over and over, and somehow face a new reality head on.
Our daily landscape is a minefield riddled with objects/thoughts/words that unleash memories which quickly plunge into emotions and grief. Photos displayed around the house that used to comfort now sometimes lash. I catch sight of your beautiful face and smile and quickly try to shake off the horrific mental hologram that seeks to superimpose images of your gap toothed skull. I look at a picture on the fridge and stop myself from the gruesome calendar math inherent in the image. I try not to calculate how many days you had left to live in each and every scene.
We have grown some of the muscles that surviving loss demands. We navigate the tough places and hold feelings in check. Just when I think I have successfully walled off the no longer possible life, I see Dan weeping over wedding dresses shown on TV. Not our path now. So much anticipated joy surrendered. On Easter, there will be no Peeps here. A ridiculous and silly thing to miss, I know, but it is another little whiff of fun we have had to dismiss. Morgan, you thought that Peeps were hilarious: the Easter equivalent of fruitcake, always present and yet never consumed. And so they were a funny inclusion in every Easter basket I ever assembled – another task that is no longer mine to do.
I am grateful that it is easier to hold these feelings in check than it was a year ago. Morgan, our life is not so sharp and fraught with pain. We are making it. Feels sort of like we have moved from walking on shards of glass to merely walking on eggshells. Still a tricky path to navigate and one I so much wish we didn’t have to walk. We miss you always and mourn the loss of joy.
241
Mom
Every time I read your blogs, I feel a small fraction of your pain. Your writing is so hauntingly beautiful, your pain so tangible, that I am forced to imagine life myself in a similar place of anguish. I make a concerted effort not to take any of the little things, the Peeps of life, for granted and to soak in the silly moments with my family I cherish and would surely miss. In this sense, Morgan has helped me even in her absence, and so her legacy of helping and caring continues. So thank you Gil, Dan, Alex and Morgan and God bless you on your journey to find a new and different joy.
I guess time does NOT heal all wounds. I don’t think that if I were you, I would be able to leave my bedroom, house or town. Our daughter told us on Easter, while we were doing our usual traditions that her childhood was so much fun, she wishes that she could do it all over again. We rarely get to see her due to physical distance and one of course can never repeat a life. I check back her every once and a while and I pray for your family which has truly been redefined. God Bless you all. You are definitely a lesson in perseverence and refinement in the face of such tragedy. Eventually, her soul will be able to rest in peace when this monster is caught. Not soon enough.
I hope you are looking into the possibility of UVA giving Morgan a diploma pr certificate at the graduation ceremony. I know this may be too late since most colleges graduate i early-mid May. Derek Jeter is going to receive an Honorary Doctorate for his philanthropic work which he truly deserves. Please take this down since this is privately from me to you.