Happy 16th!

This is Madison, Emily's friend from Florida. Notice the purple beads and headband.

Words from Mommy: "I was trying to remember her last 'earth' birthday. We celebrated at home and one of her gifts was a picture collage that Megan and Abbie put together for her of friends and family. (Emily loved looking at pictures). She often would get the box of loose pictures out and sit on the floor and take them out and look at them. She would be surrounded by pictures strewn all over the floor. The other gifts were a big poster of Shrek, one of the Disney Princesses and a stuffed Shrek."

Sweet 16 Tomorrow: HAP' BUDDAY!!!

Tomorrow would have been Emily's 16th birthday. I can still hear her saying "Hap' Budday!" She would say it often after someone's birthday until someone else celebrated theirs. We gave up trying to explain that it was no longer that person's birthday after the day was done. She was just convinced that it was that person's birthday until someone else had one. "HAP' BUDDAY, EMILY!"

A Visit to Emily's School

Today, I had to visit an intern at the middle school that Emily attended. As I approached it, I was reminded that, every time we would drive by her school, she would say proudly, "My school!" Sonja made me promise to say "hi" to Emily's teachers while I was there. So I looked them up. Ms. Mary Young said, "Come here and look at my computer." At first I didn't know what she meant, but then I noticed a picture of Emily taped to the top corner of her screen. Even after two years, Emily's teacher had left it there. She said the day Emily gave the picture to her, she pointed to the spot on her computer where she wanted the teacher to put it and that it's been there ever since. I can see Emily doing that!
It was great to see the two teachers who flew from Virginia to Orlando to see Emily in the hospital: Diane Isenhour and Nicole Sloan. We'll never forget all the faculty at Forest Middle School who loved our Emily.
Ms. Sloan took me outside to see the tree the school planted in Emily's memory. It has grown so big in these two years! At the bottom of the tree is a plaque with the nickname of what one of the teachers, Susan Boyd, called her: "Little Miss Sunshine."

"Dah-ee-Sam!"

Sometimes Emily would call me "Dah-ee-Sam" -- especially if she had called out "Dah-ee" several times before I responded. Then she'd sharply say "Dah-ee-Sam!" She knew that always got my attention. Today I'm missing her call me that.