SAYING THEIR NAMES
By Jan Withers | September 12, 2011| Filed in: General , National President , Victim Services

Children reciting names
Exclaiming love to eternity
Engraving names in granite
Fingers tenderly stroking a name
Hands gently laid on a name
Wishing they were caressing
Hearts longing
 
Rose buds adorning stone
Tears falling on stone
Water falling over stone
Never forgetting
Forever loving
 
I saw a widow of a person killed on 9/11 being interviewed last week, in anticipation of the ten-year anniversary of that dark day.   As tears ran down her face while describing her husband and how much she misses him, the reporter asked with a bit of surprise, “It still hurts after all this time?”  
 
Hurting just below the surface, after “all” this time, for a lifetime 
Darkness eventually lifting 
Sunshine and smiles happening again
Holding them in our hearts perpetually
Missing them without end
Loving them ceaselessly
 
My daughter, Alisa, was killed by a drunk driver.  When she was a toddler, we used to say goodnight with these exchanges, “I love you sooo much.”  “Well, I love you to the sky.”  “Well, I love you to the clouds.”  “I love you to the moon.”  “I love you to heaven.”  “Well, I love you past heaven.” 
One night, little Alisa exclaimed, “Well, I love you to ‘finity!”  I decided not to even try to top that!  I was amazed she even knew the word infinity, let alone what it meant.   So, that is now our family saying when we say goodbye to one another:  “I love you to ‘finity.”  
 
As we say their names, let us shout, I LOVE YOU TO ‘FINITY!


   

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