Dear Trisha,

We were both kids when our mother died. Despite this, you took a proactive role in filling the seemingly endless void that emerged as a result of this loss: you never had to dye my hair or teach me how to shave my legs, but you did so regardless.

I still remember how we gathered around the dining table hours before my junior prom, when you rushed to curl my hair and carefully glue on my false eyelashes. As you apologized for the seemingly messy application of makeup, all I could think about was how much I loved you in that moment. I never would have imagined that I could look so pretty, and although it was something so small, you made me feel so complete with such a simple look. The same feeling had rushed through my veins mere days prior when we went to Valley Fair in an attempt to find a prom dress that fit my many criteria: black, shiny and not too long. While I obsessed over how my body and scars would look, you found a dress that I fell in love with. You gave me the experience that I’d waited years to have — the Disney Channel mother-daughter rush of getting all dolled up for the night of my life.  

Your love extended even when it felt as if the whole world was against me. The night before Senior Sunrise, a morning supposed to mark the beginning of the end of a fun-filled four years, I called you in tears. In a moment of my deepest vulnerability, you were ready to give me advice. And as I sobbed to you about my friendship problems and fears, you listened. The advice you gave me continues to ring in my ears, and it is because of you that I have learned to value the quality of friendship over the quantity of it. 

As I approach adulthood and will soon face my biggest fear of leaving for college, I find comfort in knowing that you are only one phone call away, even when we are separated by so much distance. You always know what to do, be it offering advice or a listening ear, and I fear that I will never get that same connection with anyone else. We rarely express gratitude towards one another, but I wholeheartedly believe that you have enriched both my childhood and perspective of the world; I would be a completely different person without you in my life. 

Thank you for raising me when you were still raising yourself. 

Love always,

Aashi