"Write to me. Even if we're far away. Please write to me."
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I wrote. He wrote back.
Letter 1 - sent, received. (March, 8th)
Letter 2 - sent, received. (April, 13th)
I remember walking to my mailbox every Tuesday to check if he had sent his letter. There’d be a rush of excitement as I walked down the driveway but it would get mixed around with nervousness that crept up my skin. Excited to read and write back, nervous to receive nothing.
Letter 3 - sent, received. (May, 17th)
His letters always came with tiny doodles on the edge of the paper. It’s absolutely adorable. You’d think that a guy like Aiden would only stick to words, right?
Letter 4 - sent, received. (June, 21st)
Aiden’s handwriting had a slight cursiveness to it. It was surprisingly neat for a guy. Strokes of letters f, g, j, q and y were all beautifully managed with gentleness.
Letter 5 - sent, received. (August, 18th)
This time, it came with a drawing. A drawing of my favourite flower; lilies.
Letter 6 - sent, received. (November, 26th)
The letters were starting to take longer to be received. Probably a reason why they call it snail mail.
Letter 7 - sent, pending.
His letter never came.
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His Osteosarcoma was spread to his lungs. He was often coughing up blood, which clearly was not a good sign to his doctors.
Alyssa, his sister, told me that Aiden never stopped writing or drawing. She handed me a box full of letters from the weeks he’s tried to mail them to me but never found the courage to because he would often get those letters dirty with little spots of blood from coughing.
Sometimes, he’d write and rewrite those letters. The thought of him rewriting those letters just makes my heart so blue.
I wish I knew more. I wish you told me.
So at least, at the very least, I get to say goodbye to you.
