...each year, I do it. I light the candle and make a place for you...an outward symbol that your memory is still so alive inside of me. and your humor and gentleness, coloring the way I am with my own children through the years. I look at them and know in the depths of my heart that you would have found such joy just being in their presence. and they would have found such joy in you. I know this, and I am grateful. It is now youngest Jeremy's turn to know you, as I did. To hear the stories of you I hold so tenderly and hold on to so fiercely because I want you to always be present...I want you to live on in the minds of my children even after I have gone on to join you. Yes, they know you, my father, my Jerry. Thank you for your gifts. This is my gift to you on your birthday each year. I tell them the story, of you.
