Dear Guillianna and Elijah-
This is a memory from my “on this date”. Cheerleading was your moms idea. She loved it as a girl and then you loved it too. They did not however love the traveling aspect and level of competition you were involved in and decided to change you into other activities.
One of many changes in your world that happened overnight. All changes leading to good things and happiness, we are hopeful. Yet since these photos came along – in my photo stream and we looked at them and said look at that smile … look at the pure joy … there is no way we will ever believe you were unhappy and nothing will change that you were literally begging to call Poppy last time I spoke to you on FaceTime. You were promised that you could the next day. Never happened. There is something so very wrong and yet the dilemma is, how does a small child chose – knowing it would sadden their parent or parents whom they love deeply, parents whom have shown or proven to them they are all powerful, will change every aspect of their lives, and all they have is what the parents deem acceptable, their memories have been manipulated and forced to leave behind any part of who they have been. This need to survive, to feel loved and to please and all the while knowing how they loved us, how they loved their time in the Mitten – but in admitting it, or feeling that , in doing so they would be , letting down their mom and dad. The choice on the part of us, both your Nana and Poppy is -to not contribute to the hurt. Our desire is Not to make harder the situation, but rather make sure you know we asked, called, texted, emailed, mailed, begged and to each and every request the response given is that we have been cut out like a kindergartner curs our paper snowflakes- and this series of letters. This dedication to prevent repeated history , and let two more children fall victim to feelings of distrust and abandonment, we write to make certain you know you’re loved by all, that there is great sorrow for how you two have been innocent in all of this, and how broken your souls could end up to be by the severing of such important ties. These letters are to say. DO NOT BE SAD, do not be mad, simply try to understand there are many different individual ideas in this world. To believe in love and family to believe in kindness respect and human compassion. It is all good and having respect and love for your parents is important to your future children and to yourselves. Your mom and dad will one day likely have grandchildren- and they will learn from you how to treat others. How to respect differences and to pass on values. Mom and Nana have had so many discussions in the past about how raising children “does not come with a book of instructions”, and one thing we can hope she will see very soon – is that her children deserve to have all of the family they grew up around for nine and six years of their lives. Their entire lives until 12 months ago… and in 365 days if something has happened to change their hearts, that will have to be owned by whole ever has created such falsehood. If they wish to see or speak to us and have been forbidden – or are afraid to ask – we’ll all we can do is hope that there is a change. An effort – To put aside any issue that has been convoluted and distorted from partial truths into this great divide, for our own daughter to put aside her lack of faith in those who have loved her, put aside her feelings towards those she paonts as less than good and loving , and hear the heart of her children. If she cannot trust and believe in her own parents – then we can only hope one day soon she see clearly that she had the very best father, the very best Poppy to her children, that any person could ever hope for. As to me, I am far from perfect. Yet it is our hope she will see me as a woman who loved her- no one can ever tell me different , a person who tried to give her the piece that was missing from deep within her, taken from her around the same age( a bit younger) as Guillianna was when she left the Mitten. I was the best parent I could be, loved to the depth of my soul and to the broken hearted, it was not enough. There is no way ever that her grown children will ever be able to forget the love of great grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and their Nana and Poppy. The memories can be twisted and attempts can be made to change those memories, but the reality is they are real and honest memories. The effort made to forget people, leave behind memories, or change the good memories into something bad – only has potential to hurt innocent children.
The website was made before this little man was born -as a matter of fact the domain name was purchased about three years before he was born -hence its name, guillianna.com, the love letters written then were to help our daughter see her child every day ! To share with her the detail and events – to bridge the distance. Then when Elijah was born the domain name had to stay the same, but the title went from ALL ABOUT GUILLIANNA to ALL ABOUT GUILLIANNA AND ELIJAH, and has since changed from ‘love letters to mom and dad’, to ‘love letters to Guillianna and Elijah’.
These letters of love are not an embarrassment, they are not a source of anything bad or destructive. They area gift, they are to show innocent little lives that no one abandoned them, that they are not responsible for any of this, that they are very good people and they were always very happy . These letters are to defend the truth, to put in place a way for young adults to understand what is impossible for even adults to comprehend. There are tens of thousands of images, documents and all kinds of evidence to chronical the lives of Nana and Poppy. The journey we have been on, and the time that has passed – this information and these photos – cannot be twisted into lies. For every image there is a story, for every moment in the time that was spent in the Mitten- there is – has been, and always will be, love. ❤️
We love you Guillianna and Elijah, to the moon and back –
forever and for always,
XOXOXOXOXOXO
❤️Nana and Poppy❤️?
Nana
Dear Guillianna and Elijah-
We are forever grateful, we love you both …
There aren’t words for the love in our hearts and the amount of hope we feel for you and all of your family to be happy and healthy always .
We love you both to the moon and back –