Dear Emmett,
Where are you? Are you still alive? I was young when you met me. I was broken when you left me. I still feel the pull of you. You didn't come back. It has been twenty years since I've seen you last. Our daughter is now in college. She is beautiful, as you always knew she would be. She has your smile and eyes. She looks at photographs of you all the time. She asks questions about you. She even is studying to become an ASL interpreter because of you. She misses you. I miss you too. I still have your final letter to me, but I don't have the courage to open it. We both wonder how and why you were taken away from us. All I hope is that wherever you are is that you are safe and well. I remember the day you left us, it was Aimee's first birthday. We stayed up until the late hours of the night, just to wish our baby girl a great first birthday together. She was happy. I was happy.
Then you went off to war. You were trying to calm down a heart broken girl. You said "I love you" and "it's only temporary", but you were wrong! You never came back! Aimee reached out to you from me for your final hug together. Everything was changing, I knew. I just didn't know how much.
Two years after you left, they came. Aimee was only three and she was playing on the playground you built for her so many years ago. I remember seeing them park their vehicle and thinking "no, not him." The next minute felt like an hour, watching them slowly walk up our porch to greet Aimee and I.
"Hello Mrs. Bledsoe."
I knew it then, you weren't coming home. You weren't returning to me. I broke down and cried. I love you. Aimee May loves you. I hope you're okay.
Love forever,
Bay Bledsoe
I looked at the letter to my husband once last time and sent it to Afghanistan, the country that he was deported to. I even sent it to his station. I knew he'd never receive it, but I didn't care. I just needed to let things go. I needed to let him go.
