most sunny afternoons i could swear i hear you from behind me with a hey, dewdrop or a how you doin’ today, mim and i think when i turn i’ll see you walking up, tall and gangly with a hat on and your big smile. but it’s always just a breeze through my hair, always just the warmth of a spring day on my face. mom says it’ll get easier, says we should all keep believing that it’s you in those moments, reaching out from some far off intangible place in the only ways you can. he just wants to see you smile, baby girl. so i’m trying to reach back in the ways i think you would if this had been the other way around and i hope you see me, hope you can feel my love floating up to wherever you are. i hope you’re proud of me.
we lost my stepdad a few months ago after a very hard and courageous battle with brain cancer. every day feels like another step i’m taking from him, but it’s getting easier. slowly but surely.