Mike Campbell

Dear Dad,
I love you and I hope you hear this. I know your around sometimes its hard to understand you were actually real. That there is such thing as my father. Some people are teasing me because I don't have what they do but I do and I have more. There's no Dad like you and I know you know that.

-Kid

FOR MIKE -
It was hard to imagine, even as I traveled toward his memorial service, that I would not see Mike again. After all, he has been a fixture in our family since Annie started dating him. He has always been “Big Mike.” I always thought of him as bigger, taller than he may have actually been. Mike was a presence - a booming, commanding presence. It was hard not to notice him, harder still to not like him. From the start, I liked Mike. Before too long, I came to love him like...

Mike....
It's been almost a year. I'm better and worse in so many ways. They are getting ready to close the hospital down that you passed in , it's such a mixed blessing for me. When I work there and walk the halls at night I am haunted by the memories. The shockers still shock but it was the last place I held your hand. Everytime I think I'm ok with everything this part of me wants to yell "It's not fair"!. I know you're there I feel you at my weakest times- begging me not to cry but...

Merry Christmas


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Hey Baby
We got home from New York today. I wanted to thank you sincerely for every moment of happiness. I feel like you gave me everything a person could give another. I wil love you forever John Michael Campbell. My first Christmas without you Sugar but we all survived. Silly old Mikey with his goofy grin . Baby Jack playing with his Batman. Celie with her gold glitter converse. Crazy little kids we raised together... Hey there were lasagna fights this year lol. Kids played in snow....

hey uncle mike,
ive been meaning to write you since christmas eve. i miss you alot especially around this time of year. we all miss you alot. i wish you were here because i know in my heart alot of things would be different. not everything but enough. you just had that way about you. well i hope your christmas was nice. i think were all glad its over. i always know what i want to write to you and once i start typing my mind goes blank. well i love you very very much and i think about you...

Hey Dad. We're going to New York today. I know it's really early but we have to get up really early today. I'm really gonna miss you but I really need to be with my family. I don't know how I'm going to react. I hope you have a nice Christmas. I really do... our Christmas is going well so far. We really miss you and we hope we will have a good time in NY. Bye.

Dear Mike,
Just over a year has gone by since we learned that you were ill... That day was a nightmare, every time we heard an update, things got worse. I remember, as though it were yesterday, when Nancy came to tell me the worst possible news. Her face told the story, at least what was known at that point. I had to go back to teaching class, but my brain was frozen. I could only think of all of you, so far away, whose lives had been changed in a moment. And there was nothing any of us...

As tears roll down my cheeks,
I think:
"WHat a man I got. The honor of being in his prescence and being able to call him mine." I forget that sometimes. I am frightened... I saw a picture... and I immediately begin to cry. Without knowing it... I seem to be putting these memories down the trash... but when I take them out I remember. And my only wish was to have you hugging me and kissing my forehead and say "My kid..." just one more time. One more time until the end of my life. I want...