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For Forever, My Angel 🫂🤍

Writer's picture: Alysse HarrisAlysse Harris

Time is such a wild concept. Our connection with other realms and the way our brains change overtime is even wilder. I didn't realize that it's about to be six years since my Aunt Veronica passed away and sometimes, it just sneaks up on me because I didn't even realize that her birthday was coming up until I saw a memory on Facebook. It's crazy though because right before I saw it, I was analyzing the tattoo that I got for her and before that, earlier this week, she crossed my mind. I have my doubts and questions about a lot of things, but these things never feel like a coincidence. Who can deny that our angels are always near, in close connection with us even when they are not physically here. But that's another topic for another day; this blog is dedicated to her because her life and her death is embedded into Wildflowaaa by L'Raé.

My Aunt Roni or Mrs. Wooten, as most people know her. She was truly one of the most beautiful women you'd ever get the honor to meet, on the inside and the out. She had such a big smile with the heart to match and so much love to pour from it. When I was younger, we lived all across the country and overseas and she always made sure to love on us; it was no different when we moved back to the states. She made sure to call, to send gifts, to be present even from across the world. That was how much she loved us. Speaking of gifts, I have so many of them, still. When I was little, she bought me a coin purse with a blue butterfly embroidered on it and I still have it. So, I guess it would be no surprise that I associate my love for butterflies with her. For me, seeing butterflies is the equivalent to seeing cardinals and every time, I do there is a sense of relief in my chest.


February 19, 2017. I remember my aunt calling me with my little brother crying in the background and I knew something was wrong. Nobody would tell me exactly what it was, but I knew. I waited for my cousin to re-enter the room and saw the look on her face and knew. I can still feel the way it felt like my heart literally shattered into pieces and suddenly, I was different. After nonstop crying for a while, I just stopped and felt something in my brain change as if somebody flipped a switch. I will never forget it.

I've always took things hard but never in a way like this. I stopped working so hard in school, stopped imagining my future because I never planned for it not to include her. I detached myself from my body in a way that I still have not recovered from, but you know, pain and trauma will do that to you. Transitioning to college was rough (but we'll skip that part). I struggled with her physical absence for so long that it affected every aspect of my life but especially my mental health.


2013-2017. When she was still alive, I was able to help take care of her because she was unable to take care of herself. I may not have appreciated the honor at the time being that I was a teenager but now that I'm older, I am grateful for that experience. I have worked with children who are in need of the same help that she needed and every single time, I think about her, and it fills me with joy to do the work that I do. Even though, I'd rather her still be here (in a healthier condition), I would do anything to have the chance to really cherish the opportunity to take care of her. It's mind boggling how life can simultaneously be so tragic yet so beautiful and how it can take you through so many motions until it brings you all the way back around to a place that you never thought you would be.


In 2017, I never would've thought I'd live without her. In 2021, I never would have imagined that I would come out of that dark place. In 2023, I never imagined that so many of my moments with her would have been life changing in such a good way. How phenomenal of a woman can you be to have an impact even in the afterlife. Unknowingly, she has had such an impact on the creation of Wildflowaaa by L'Raé.

The ups and downs of my mental health started when I lost her and yet those ups & downs have given me so many revelations: WBL being one. Butterflies signify endurance, hope and transformation: concepts that have grown to be so significant in my life and the symbol of WBL.

The greatest thing anybody has ever told me is that they see my aunt in me. As I previously stated, she was such a beautiful woman, on the inside and the out. She is the reason that I am the woman I am today, the reason I love so relentlessly and keep my heart open. She was my biggest supporter and she showed me love that no one else ever did during times that I needed it most and those simple acts of love have literally changed my life. And I am so grateful that I got to experience such a light in this world. I aspire to leave such a lifechanging legacy of compassion & love behind as she has.

Every day that I breathe, I miss her.


For forever, my angel. Happy 50th birthday. I‘ll never let you go.

“Grief is love‘s souvenir. It is proof that we once loved.“ - ”Love Warrior” by Glennon Doyle Melton
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