June 2, 2018
"One more year being without you. Hope to be with you on your next 'Birthday.' Love, Ya!! Your Moma."
My mother, Deborah Ann, wrote these words to me inside a card for my fortieth birthday in 2015. My mom had stood by me as my number one supporter and longed for me to come back home to her over a span of more than nineteen years. This adventure called life had dealt us some awful hands, especially during my teen years when we didn't get along with each other very well. But no matter what type of hand that life dealt to us we never folded and played it to the best of our abilities.
She taught me this, almost beat it into me, to never, ever give up. She was tough like this; I guess it helped her to birth and raise two sons almost all on her own. She made sure that we had enough even when we didn't have enough, and still she found something to give to others although she didn't have it for herself.
I'd also received a letter from her a few days before I received the card. She wrote me that she wasn't doing so good but that she held her head up.
This letter is part of the Death Letter Project - North Carolina, a means to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Historic Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, NC.
Credits:
Michael Palko