WAS THAT YOU?

Yesterday at work my day ended in a very special way, only a way that must have come from you. Around 2 o'clock I noticed a Ta-la-du (cricket) had found it's way into my office. I asked the cricket to be careful, I didn't want it to get stomped or anything, and it went to hide. Your big sister, Prairie, comes up everyday and as soon as she arrived the cricket came out of hiding. Prairie immediately ran to the cricket and said "hey, Cylas!" Then she attempted to pick it up and to my amazement, the cricket didn't jump away and let her pick it up. She carried it around for about 15 minutes, putting it down from time to time, but it didn't try to jump away or nothing. The cricket stayed by her side. She would talk to the cricket and was very gentle with it and she just knew that it was you. I don't like crawling things so I didn't hold the cricket, but even I found myself talking to the cricket as if it could understand what I was saying. When it came time to go, Prairie wanted to take the cricket and I wouldn't let her, mainly because we didn't have anything to keep it in. She was very disappointed and I think the cricket was too! Because when we left and I was locking the door it was sitting there not moving, almost as if it was saying "what about me?"

The reason why we BOTH say it was you is because your indian name is Ta-la-du, which means cricket in our Cherokee Language. So anytime we see a cricket we think that it's you, our precious Cylas, visiting. Of course this only makes us miss you more, but it also helps us to know that you visited and haven't forgotten about us, either. As you know your sister has a rough time recently, so your visit meant the world to her. I know that holding a cricket in no way replaces you, but it makes her feel like she's magic and even though your gone it's her way of knowing that you will never be too far away.

So Cylas, thank you so much for making your sister feel so special! She really needed that.

Love,

Mommy