To the editor:

This letter is intended to help me find some closure due to the death of a very special friend, Debra Holescher. My heart, soul and prayers go out to her mother, family and friends.

Deb always had a sparkle in her eye, smile on her face and was a bit shy. She never got down about anything. Her smile and attitude could melt an ice cube on the coldest of days. In school, the girls did their thing, as did the guys, but for us, we had each other. That’s the way she liked it, and me.

Deb could always tell when something was bothering me. She would bump me with her arm and with a smile say, “Don’t worry, there’s always tomorrow.” We always sat beside each other in school and ate lunch together and talked and laughed.

I don’t usually stop for a paper, but a feeling I had, told me to. When I read her obituary, I felt an emptiness. I read it over and over, praying it wasn’t true. The evening of her viewing, I should have attended, but couldn’t face the fact she was gone. That inner voice told me to go say goodbye.

The day of her funeral, again, I should have attended but couldn’t face that reality. All day I couldn’t think of nothing but the good times. It was like a rerun over and over in my mind.

When I got off work, I went to the grave yard searching for her grave. As I walked up upon it, a sudden chill over came me. As I knelt down on one knee to pray, tears of compassion flowed continuously. I felt an emptiness, but a sudden warmness around me. When I finished my prayers and began to walk away, the tears stopped but the warmness was still present.

As I was walking away, without hesitating, I turned and said, “I’ll be back Sunday — every Sunday.” I feel our friendship hasn’t ended through death, but became a stronger bond.

Now, the question haunts me: “WHY?” WHY didn’t I attend her viewing? WHY didn’t I attend her funeral? In school, WHY didn’t I ask such a sweet person for a date or two?

I now know that I have a new guardian angel. For she was to me an angel her on earth.

John Flaute

Houston