Birthday Message from Mom

 Dear Michael, today is your birthday and it is a reminder of the magnitude of my loss. I have celebrated this day with you for 47 years, with cakes and cards and phone calls and family gatherings. It is hard to accept that you are really gone, it seems that you are just out of reach, somewhere close, felt, but not seen. I wish there were a telephone connection to the afterworld so that I could talk to you.

I want to tell you about your car, the Honda Element, how proud I feel to drive it, how it feels like being hugged by you every time I get into it, and how I appreciate the way it has handled all that this awful Minnesota winter has thrown at it. The memories of you that it contains give me comfort.

I am so grateful that there were no unspoken words or unresolved issues between us and so happy that you were able to say to the world that you loved your Mom. I will never forget my public birthday hug at the Cedar. Thank you for that and so much more.

I was so proud of you and your bandmates of Long Straight Forever for that glowing night at the Cedar when you were on fire and you finally realized what we already knew, that you really were great a musician.

I love you, Michael, I hope you keep playing, somewhere, somehow.

Mom