I watched time change its rhythm around you
Days measured not in sunsets but in strength
In quiet battles no one else could see
In smiles you gave even when it cost you everything
Cancer tried to rewrite your story
But it never understood who you were
You were more than the illness, more than the pain
More than the fragile way the world began to hold you
We spoke in softer voices toward the end
As if gentleness could somehow keep you here
As if love, spoken carefully enough
Could anchor you against the pull we could not fight
There are things I wish I had said louder
And moments I wish I had held longer
But grief teaches me this
You knew, you always knew you were loved
Now I look for you in the quiet places
In the spaces where laughter used to live
In the echoes of who you were before the world changed
Before goodbye became something real
And though you are no longer here to answer
I still speak your name like a promise
That you are remembered, that you are carried
That love did not end, it only learned a new way to stay
And then tattoo a butterfly on my chest for you