Blast from the Past

While at my Grandparents' house tonight I came back across an old video tape of the Hunt kids that my mom made when she visited them for Aaron's 7th birthday in 1987.

As I watched that video, it was like I was getting a glimpse into their childhoods. I payed special attention to Alli, hoping that I could get to know better who she was and I think I did. I saw a hyper-active, created, talented, mostly happy-go-lucky little girl who loved making commercials for her pretend businesses and doing creative things with her brother and sister. I noticed that, even at that young age, Alli already had a beautiful voice and was very good at playing piano and not quite as good at the violin, but still I could tell how hard she was trying. She was so full of life and excitment and wild ideas...

I cherish that tape because it's the only real glimpse of her I have, eventhough she was so young at the time and it makes me wonder what she was really like. That brings to mind something her sister, Mandy, told me once "she had been many different things to each person she knew--none of them exactly the same. So we all knew a different Allie, in a way...But she showed a different part of herself to each person, really."
She also told me something else "...a memory lives, and for you, this Allison (who you project her to be) lives, and it is who it is." I try to remember this and, though I know Alli isn't coming back and the pain of her death will never go away, It comforts me to know that Alli, the essence of the person I picture her as, will never really be gone. That Alli is mine alone and she'll always be with me, watching over me, and loving me, until the day I go to meet her. The knowlege that that day will come is what helps me keep going through the days before it comes.