I am stunned at how quickly the time goes by. 4 1/2 years for my dad.

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time marches on kevin. i'll be thinking of you today & hoping you get through it without too many tears, a few laughs, & lots of great memories of your mom.

Wow....time does fly. And it seems (which i always heard from "old folks") that as you get older, time seems to go faster.
I know it's that way for me.

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It's incredible the amount of physical pain I can handle, yet, the thought of not being able to send mother a birthday card in a couple weeks or seeing her on Christmas ... shoots tears down my cheeks.

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My dad died 10 years ago on (fittingly) on Veterans Day. The ache doesn't really get better. I was crying on the way home from work today hearing a story on the radio about families who had lost husbands/fathers, etc in Afghanistan. It just brought back the whole feeling of loss all over again.

You're a good son, and a good father to a little girl. I'm sure your mom would be very proud of you.

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wow - looking back on these posts - amazing! it's now been 6 years since i lost my dad.
i was a hot mess on what would have been his 76th birthday but did much better on the anniversary of his death.
just grateful to have all you guys to share joys & sorrows with.

My big brother died in 1975. My dad died in 1977. I still miss them both.

While I don't ever expect this to change, and so in that sense, the wound never heals, the scar tissue has more or less gotten thick enough so that the "sad" memories are generally blurred enough not to be painful.

(I wish I could say the same about Happy. It's over six months now, and it still feels like yesterday that my sister called me in Columbus.)

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To say the weeks proceeding and succeeding April 30th and November 18th are troubling for me, mentally and emotionally would be an understatement the last nearly four years. It's a time when I have to accept mom is gone. I can't "trick" myself into believing she is just not answering the phone or is 1,200 miles away attributing to why I can not see her.

You never gave up on me, even when I nearly did. Finally I started to get it together; graduated college, good career, nice place to live, custody of Keiana and even started repairing my relationship with Dad like you so badly wanted ... after years of disappointment, I started to become a son you could be proud of, ... and then, you were taken from us. It's not fair ... life ... is not fair. I vision you nudging grandpa, pointing, saying "that's your grandson!". I will get knocked down, but knowing you are watching, I will always get up better than I was before. Nothing can keep me down because I have you up there watching and I can not fail you. Happy Birthday mom. You were taken far too soon ... we still need you, I ... still need you.

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When the day approaches, the coming weeks tend to be very difficult. This time, I engulfed myself into a project to keep my mind busy. It worked until the day after the fourth year of her passing. I don't remember the song, but Tuesday while at work I suddenly had tears sliding down my cheeks uncontrollably. I can't shake the feeling of no matter how strong I try to be, the more weak I feel.

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Yesterday was the birthday of one of my two idols growing up, Dale Earnhardt. I was sharing some videos with Keiana. She either did well pretending to be interested, or she really was. And today marks five years since mom left us. I used to tell her all the time that she shouldn't worry about me, that I was a big boy and could handle myself. I was thinking of that this morning and when I closed my eyes, I could see her and hear her saying "Kevin Jon!" and then proceeded to tell me how she's my mother and will always worry about me. I'm very thankful for the ability to recall memories so well ... it's as if she never really left.

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