A letter from Dec 30th, 2021

Hi Mom, This is Lily. I'm writing to you from five years ago. I hope you are doing well. I am currently 17 years old. It's been a rough year, for both of us. We had to put Molly down a couple weeks ago. I just wanted you to know that I love you and I don't say it enough but I am so grateful for you. I don't always agree with everything you do, but I can see that everything you do for our family is done out of love. I know you worry about me and the decisions I have made and I'm sorry. I don't know if I can ever repay for you the amount of time and energy that has gone into trying your best to make sure I'm okay, and the money you spent on therapy. I hope that you are doing well, Charlotte should be around 6. She's almost 2, and she's just the cutest thing ever. I don't know if you remember this, but every morning she knocks on my door for like five minutes straight and says, "Yee Yee! Yee Yee!" until I finally open the door and let her in. I love her so much, she's truly keeping me alive right now. When I struggle with depression, I just think about how much I love her and how badly I want to teach her how to burp. I hope you finally got to move into your forever home. We're living at the Townhouse right now. It's weird. I lived in the same home for 16 years and then we moved. That's crazy to me. I think you've had enough trials in your life, and you finally deserve to have a house that doesn't drive you crazy. If I'm super rich in five years, show me this email and I'll buy you a good house, that has a good thermostat and adequate heating. I should be 22 right about now. I wonder what it was like to watch me grow up. Probably comparable to car accident that you don't really want to see, but you can't help but slow down and stare. I'm kind of a mess right now, but I truly don't think that I would've even made it to 22 without you. (Again thank you for paying for my therapy) Were you happy when I finally moved out or was it more sad than happy? Are you still working at CHG, you should be like CEO by now or something. You work really hard for that place so I hope they worship you or whateva. Well, That's all I can really think to write about without me crying or thinking about something embarrassing so I'm just going to say this. Thank you for being my mom. I love you, even if I am being a punk and we're fighting at the moment you're reading this. Please know how much I love you and see how much you do for me. Love, your favorite adult child, Lily