Dear Grandpa,
It’s been a while since I’ve seen you last and I miss you more than ever. I miss your smile and your laugh. I miss your hugs. I miss the sound of your voice singing me happy birthday every year. I miss you being there for every major event that happened in my life. There’s so many things I wish I could say to you, so many things I wish you could see. Since you’ve been gone, everything has been so different.
Your house is so empty without you there. There’s a silence that fills the air; a happiness is absent. Holidays are different now too. They lack your contagious spirit and lively attitude. A piece of our Christmas puzzle is missing.
There’s so many things I wish I would have done while you were still here. If I could go back, I would ask you more about your life. I feel like I missed out on the opportunity to know so much about you by failing to ask you about everything you experienced in your life. I would also call you more. There’s days that I would love to hear your voice one last time. I would kill to hear that laugh that made me smile no matter how many miles apart we were.
The crazy thing is that even though you are gone physically, I know you are with me always. Little things remind me that you are forever by my side. I see you in everything I do, from picking up pennies on the ground to buying lottery tickets. Songs I hear and words I read bring tears to my eyes in memory of you, but I smile because I know you’re listening and reading them too.
Some days are harder than others. As I grow older and great life events are upon me, I think of your absence. It’s hard for me to fathom that you won’t see me graduate college, get married, or start my own family. You left this world so soon, with so much left to see. It breaks my heart. You would’ve been so happy to see me grow and to become a great-grandparent.
They say it gets easier, but I don’t think it ever will. I think about you every day and how much I wish you were here. Losing you was the hardest thing I’ve had to go through. You were so special to me and every person who knew you.
Lastly, I want to thank you for always telling me how beautiful and smart I was. Thank you for never letting me forget how proud you were of me. Thank you for showing me, and my brother, and my cousins, and my parents, and my aunts and uncles, and of course, my grandma, how much you truly love all of us. We miss you. I miss you.
Keep watching over me,
Your granddaughter
