My Mimi Is Gone

It's been a year since my Aunt Mary (Mimi) passed at 49, in her sleep. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her, and feel a pang in my chest when I want to tell her something. I think back a year ago, when I got the news. Logically, it did not make sense. She couldn't be gone. She was supposed to be here forever. Even to this day, whenever I'm up in Seattle, I think to myself; "I should stop by and visit with my Mimi...." And then it hits me, I can't. Never again will I get a hug from her. Never again will I get to share a pot of Earl Grey tea with her. Never again will I hear that I'm her "Mini Me", and actually have it mean something. I've come so far, and achieved so mush in the past year, that I wish I could tell her. I hope that she would be proud of me. I drove up to Seattle today, and let a single red balloon go, right in front of her old apartment. I attached a note to the balloon, with the foolish hope, that it might, somehow reach her. All it said was; "I miss you." That is an understatement. I pine, and I ache for her. Yet, I know, she'd give me a severe talking to, if I continued to be depressed by her absolute, absence. So I wear her rings, and know that she loved me so much, and if she could have chosen, she'd still be here. For me, for her sister, for her family. She would have...

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