First day, first month, first holiday, first milestone ...

Today is your birthday, my Beloved. A day that should be full of presents and food, and joy, and celebration.
Instead, I sit in a house too quiet, a life too still, packing for a trip I dread. Baxter, and KC, and PWNN and I will make the journey north to visit your Folks. We'll go to lunch, and we'll try to talk, and we'll try to linger anywhere that is not the church your Dad helped to build, the cemetery that was once land you and he farmed while a Great Uncle sat on the wide front porch of the Home Place and timed each circuit y'all made. I'll leave the card and balloon and the picture frame ... and in time it will be swept away by the grounds keeping staff in the manner of all things left to commemorate the life and love of those who now surround you. Your Mom will try to be so brave and so stoic and I admire her so for it. Your wife is not so composed, Darling. I fear that Baxter and KC will be soaked yet again by the time I begin the journey home.
108 days, Dearest ... and for a brief moment each day, I open the bedroom door expecting to see your tousled head over the back of your recliner ... and then it's not and then it is a minute by minute journey through the day.
Watch over us, Karol Lee, as we travel ... as we find our way through life without your wit and wisdom. The world is a poorer place without you ... I know I am a poorer Human Being. I love you. I miss you.