Dear Amanda,
You don’t know it, but I think of you often. I think that I will always remember best the last day that we saw each other. It was Halloween and Alisha and I were dressed up as Indians. Before long the plot was set and you were the mommy and I was the baby. We ran and laughed and played until it was time to leave. I wonder if the day would have been any different if we’d known it was our last chance to play together. The next morning I didn’t understand why you were gone. I thank God that I didn’t understand because I was only 7 and no child should have to understand what happened to you. But I did understand that you were gone and that I missed you. Many years have gone by now and I have moved on and grown up. Over the years, God revealed to me that I was going to work children. I would have never imagined that I would work with kids but here I am. There are so many kids out there that need to be loved and cared for. I have to keep fighting for them because they are important and they deserve to know that they are important. I don’t know why God choose to let me live today while you remain forever 12 years old. But I want you to know that your life was not unimportant. When my work is too hard and I am filled with despair I remember you. It’s not fair that you never got to grow up. It makes me mad that someone would hurt you but unfortunately, there is nothing that I can do to change the past. I can do something, though I may not always know what, to change what will happen in the future. So when I’m teaching a child English, rocking a baby to sleep, or loving an orphaned child I am thinking of you. You don’t know it, but you are my inspiration. I won’t let evil win. I won’t forget about you or let indifference reside. I will fight for the ones who can’t fight for themselves and through this I pray that your short life will be the inspiration that gives life to many others.
Honored to have known you,
Brittany