Today marks the one year anniversary of losing this young man to drowning.

He was our son's best friend, someone who was like another son to my husband and me, another brother to our daughters, and an "uncle" to our granddaughter. His death has buried us all under a heavy blanket of pain, sadness and loss.

His family has been trying so hard to get through the days, the hours, and the minutes. His memory is everywhere...he was filled with life and light.

I went to the cemetery yesterday and as always, I came away with the anger still bubbling inside of me that this amazing young person, this strong, vibrant, loving, funny, talented, warm young person, had to die so young and so tragically. I know that anger is not what I should be feeling, but it is.

"They" say that in every loss, something good comes of it. His sister, who had been trying to have a baby for eleven years...eleven years...is due to give birth at the end of October. It is a joyous miracle, I know that. But why does God have to take one before He can give one?

And so tomorrow we will be at church remembering the one year anniversary of losing this beautiful young man, and afterward, we will be attending a shower celebrating the upcoming birth of his first niece.

"A baby is God's way of saying the world should go on."

We love you, kid.