Dear Dave,

Remember how mad I would get every time you called me Vanessa. I'd give anything to hear it and get mad again. Today we watched the Super Mario Brothers movie. Jediah brought a picture of you with us because he just knew that you'd like to watch it too. I'm pretty sure you would have loved it. Julian dressed up as Mario. Yaya was Luigi and Gabby was princess Peach. I didn't dress up but I brought Yoshi with me as a sort of prop. Movie was pretty good, it was such a reminder of my childhood.

Jack Black voiced Bowser and the highlight of the movie was the song he wrote for Peach. " Peaches, peaches, peaches, peaches" Boy was that funny. When we walked to the car, Yaya asked for a few minutes alone with you. When he got in the car he was crying. When we got home he sat at the dining room table for about 30 mins looking at your picture and crying. After a while he came and laid down with me and cried on my shoulder, I probably could have held him all night if he needed me to. You know it breaks my heart when they cry because they miss you. Two years in and I still don't know how to deal with this shit. Not fully, at least.

I wish I could take their pain away. I hate that they're finding out about life's unfair treatment this young. I only hope and pray life is kinder to them then it ever was for me. If it's up to me, and I truly believe part of it IS up to me, they would never struggle, they would never feel pain, they would only know happiness.

We miss you hunny bee 🐝

Let me show you how crazy we looked 🥹