Today

We're taking the kids up to the cemetery this morning to see where Michael is buried. I hope this will start the healing process for everyone. My son Trevor is only 11 and too young to understand what is going on. We couldn't have an open casket, so that makes it even harder for him to realize that Michael is really gone. Not just for him, but for all of us. Trevor and Michael were the best of buddies. It was them and eight girls in our family, so they needed to stick together against the evil tyranny of the females. At every family gathering, I have pictures of the two of them playing their video games or just sitting together.

We have to pick out a headstone, too. That will be awful. We're all going to help pay for it because he was our boy, too. In my family, we're all very close. His mother and I were raised like sisters and he always told everyone I was his aunt, not "just a cousin" as one insensitive old bitty commented at the funeral home.

It's times like these you realize just who your true friends are and who matters most.

I thank all of my friends who have left words of support. It means a lot to me.