To my precious nephews,

I am going to try to put this into words for when I see you in about an hour. First of all, I love you very much. And you know what? Your Daddy loves you very, very, VERY much! Your Daddy wants to be with you more than anything in the whole, wide world. He would never, ever leave you on purpose.

When Daddy got hurt last night, it hurt his body so much that his body couldn’t keep working. It had to stop. His body quit working because it was hurt so badly, and Daddy’s body died. We’re not going to be able to see your Daddy anymore, because his body died.

We’re going to have to tell Daddy’s body bye, and lots of people will be sad because we won’t get to see him anymore, but we always, always get to keep loving him. And he will always love you, too.

But you know what else? Daddy also loves Jesus. Daddy’s body died, but because he loves Jesus, we know that someday, we’ll get to see Daddy again in Heaven. Who also lives in Heaven? Jesus! Wow – that means that Daddy lives with Jesus now!

I know you miss Daddy and want to see him, and so do we, but we can’t. But we know that Jesus is taking good care of Daddy. We’re going to take good care of you, too, and when we feel sad, we’ll feel sad together. When we look at pictures of Daddy, we’ll remember him together. We all feel sad that we won’t get to talk to him or hug or kiss him or listen to his voice anymore, but we love each other, and when we feel sad, we’ll help each other.

Just remember that if Daddy could have stayed here with us, I know he would have. He would never leave you on purpose. It feels sad when someone dies, and it’s ok to feel sad. Aunt Angela loves you both so, so very much. Your Daddy was my brother, and I miss him a whole bunch. How about we say a thank-you prayer that Jesus is taking good care of Daddy right now in Heaven?