In Memory of Amanda and Matt

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