I look at the picture above, and it just crushes me. How did the innocent kid eating candy end up in a wooden box before his 32nd birthday? When you look at how much effort we put into one another as human beings—as parents, brothers, cousins, sisters—you begin to wonder how it is even remotely possible that things could go the way they do.
The pictures of us as kids are the hardest ones to look at. When I close my eyes, I see David the night before he died, and the days and weeks leading up to it. But when I look at the pictures, it drums up all those years we spent together as I watched him grow up.
He had this little cowlick at the back of his head that would just constantly stick up. And when he was little, he would poke about in his diapers, his little belly sticking out. He was such a cool little partner in crime.
It’s only through those pictures that you realize how much time was spent and how much more was lost. If you get a few minutes today and have access to some pictures of somebody you love: Take a few minutes out to appreciate how much time has lapsed, and why it is so damn important to give a hug or let somebody know how important to you they are.
We don’t say it often enough… and then only realize it when it is already too late.
