Dear brother,
There are days when your name still rises to my lips
As easily as it did when you were here,
As if somewhere nearby you might answer
The way you always used to.

I remember the sound of your laughter first
The way it filled a room without asking permission,
The way it made ordinary moments feel like stories
Worth remembering

There are pieces of you scattered through my life now

In old jokes that still make me smile.
In songs that suddenly bring you back.
In the quiet memories that arrive when the world
Finally slows down

Sometimes I think about all the years we shared
The small arguments that seemed so important then,
The adventures that felt ordinary
Until time turned them into something precious

I wish I had known how quickly memories
Become the only place we can visit someone again.

If I could speak to you now the way I once did,
I would tell you that your absence
Is felt in ways I never expected

I would tell you that your stories are still told,
Your laughter still remembered,
Your place in this family istill held with love

And I would tell you this

That a brother is never truly gone
As long as his memories continue to live
In the hearts of the people who carry him forward.

So today, dear brother,
I honor you not only in sadness
But in gratitude for the time we had
And the bond that time cannot erase.

I would tatoo your memories as a lily on my pinky