My aunt, Diamond, is just a couple of years older than me. We really grew up together and she was a lot more like a sister than an aunt. When I found out she was pregnant the first time with Tyler, I was so excited. I even told some people I was going to be an uncle before I thought about it. Kyle came soon after Tyler. We didn't think he was going to make it. He had complications with his heart. The doctors didn't think he would be with us very wrong.
Kyle passed away last weekend, just a few months before he turned 10. We laid him to rest today.
I didn't spend much time with him, or his siblings(Zachary came just a year after Kyle and the twins, Kaytlin and Alyssa weren't far behind him). The one thing I will remember about Kyle, the one thing everyone will remember about him, is his smile. Kyle had the biggest smile you ever saw. He also wore thick glasses, which just seemed to magnify that smile. One Christmas, all the kids were at my parents' house. I can still see Kyle running around with a cookie in each hand and that big smile on his face.
I've held it together up until now. I don't cry. But thinking about that little boy, and how he's gone. I can't help it.
He's in a better place. I saw him just before they closed the casket and moved him to the church for the funeral. It wasn't the same little boy. It didn't look anything like him. My cousin Kyle is running around heaven with a big smile on his face and a cookie in each hand.