Dear Jessica, hello pretty Lady!
I call you "Lady", as today is your special day! The day you would have moved from the "anguished" teen-age years to young womanhood. I am a Groundhog Baby, too! I am sure I will never forget you on our special day.
Though I am twice your age, it is truly remarkable how much you and I have in common. I have heard that you had a story to tell! Hey, me, too! I was also born and raised in the Deep South... even deeper than you! I too was really a good girl but I did make unwise, immature, foolish choices at times. Not saying you did that, as I really don't know. I do know that you made choices that had to have caused discomfort for others. You just can't be a square peg in a small town where the pretty, outgoing, blond girls can only be round. Personally, I myself made choices that caused consequences that I live with even today. I too was involved in inter-racial dating at a young age. And, though I don't know what that meant for you, I do know what it meant for me... it meant my loving parents were "beyond themselves" and didn't know what to do about this "problem" I created for them. It meant I had to be down right sneaky at times! Can't tell you how many times I made a "quick trip to town", with my parents' approval, though often a skeptical approval, IYKWIM, by way of the back roads that eventually got me to town... but not before clandestine meetings; the quick, passionate kind that kept the "love" alive while keeping my parents in the dark, as much as possible!
Anyways, I could go on and on about this... how these zippy little meet-ups very often put me in scary, and more than once, in downright dangerous situations. The worse was the time when I went looking for my sweetheart and ended up being all alone, in a very dark place, a remote spot somewhere in a field... somewhere. But, not completely alone. No, my spur of the moment decision to go looking for my love (who was nowhere to be found), resulted in his good friend (wink, wink) offering to take me to where he was hanging out. But, we didn't end up there... we ended up in the middle of nowhere, in the dark. Anything could have happened. I am lucky to be alive.
I've read that you are a Christian. I am a Christian, too. I watched your funeral and I felt the stirring of the Spirit within me. You know, when we don't know what to pray, when we can only groan because we have no words, He makes intercession for us! I felt that was happening during your funeral. I loved the traditional service, the music, the "preaching"! It was lovely. As you were lovely.
Well, I shouldn't spoil this HAPPY BIRTHDAY/HAPPY GROUNDHOG'S DAY JESSICA letter with my sordid tales. I just wanted you to know I think you and I could have, would have, should have been good friends. I have come to think of you as that, in spite of the little that I actually know about you. I think I know the important stuff.
Happy Birthday, Jessica. I pray and hope and pray more everyday that Justice will come. You deserve it!
:Happybirthday: :balloons: :confetti: