To my pirate on Halloween

Dear Ben,

This was one of your favorite days of the year! Halloween, where you could don your pirate-y things, and run through the neighborhood collecting your pirate booty...all the candy a kid could want. I am going to miss watching you create your latest pirate. You had been working on making your black pirate hat look more like the ones in the Pirates of the Carribean. I think you used most of my scotch tape!

How I miss you son. These "firsts" are the hardest. The first Halloween without you. I pray that you know how very much I cherish the time I had with you, my sweet angel boy. Do you get to dress up in Heaven? I sure hope so.

Love,

Mommy

And the punchline is....

One particularly beautiful day, I had opened the windows to let the fresh air in as we did our schoolwork. Ben had finished his assignments and was dressed up in his cowboy gear. He decided to go out in the backyard to play cowboy. At one point, he wrangled up to the open window and in his best western drawl asked, "Ma'am, you got any soda in there?" I was helping the girls so I told him "No, we're out of soda. Try back later." He played around a bit more but returned to the window with the same question, "Ma'am, you got any soda in there?" Once again I told him there was no soda. He went back to playing in the yard. When he came up to window the third time, and asked the same question "Ma'am, you got any soda in there?" , I decided to play along with his game and said, "What kind of soda will it be?" To which he replied without hestitation, "Make mine Minnesota!!!"

I will never know if he made that up himself or if he had heard it somewhere, but it is such a good representation of his sense of humor that I would like to think it is a Ben original.

Ben, you made me laugh out loud and in my heart every day. You were such a happy guy, you woke up cheerful every morning and always had a hug and kiss for me first thing. Smile down on your family every day from Heaven and bless us with your love.