"Ohhh, it's so pretty, what is it?" "A rose, Amy." "Rose..." -Amy and I, age 6
"It's like a growing sunshine!" -Amy, age 8
This page is in memory of Amy Mariette, my sister, my teacher, my best friend.
I lost her early on this year, and I miss her dearly. I fear the pain will never calm or melt away.
Amy was infinitely precious to me. No one could ever hope to fill the shoes she's left behind.
I don't know why she's gone, I only know I want her back. Her loss feels like someone has wrapped their hand in a vicious deathgrip around my heart and won't let go.
There's a song I keep hearing that will forever remind me of her. And along with the roses, I will leave it here for her.
Roses were always Amy's favorite flowers. That's what she'd call me sometimes, Rose, and I would call her Lily, after our favorite flowers. I selected the roses carefully for their specific meanings, as well as her absolute favorite; the white rose.
"I don't ever want to be an angel. I want to stay here!" -Amy, 9
"Wouldn't it be lovely to have a garden filled with just roses?" Amy, 12
"Is there a fairy inside?" -Amy, 6
"Now we have roses on our walls!" -Amy, 10
Roses are traditionally a romantic flower, but their meanings are much more vast .
The pink is for friendship as well as Amy's grace and the joys we shared during the past eight years.

The yellow rose also represents friendship, but it is a yellow tea rose, which says "I'll remember." And I will. I will always remember my Amy Mariette, always.

Rosebuds signify a young girl, full of beauty and joy. Amy most certainly was. What Amy had was the beauty that comes from within, perhaps springing from the eternal joy she held deep inside her heart, joy she was always willing to share.

The rosebud is also one of stained glass, reminiscent of the fragile beauty of our time together. Too often do we realize what we have only after it is gone. Not true. Amy and I knew the value of a second with a loved one. And I hold them all the dearer now that we shall never share another.

The white rose will forever be Amy's flower to me. She adored it for its purity and the simple, holy beauty it keeps so humbly. It is because of this I include it as the background for her page, and that it reminds me of when we met, in the summer I was six. The rose itself stands not only for innocence and purity, but also silence and secrecy. We had so many secrets I am now left the lone keeper of, so many whispers shared in the darkess after lights-out, so many dreams, fears, hopes, so many memories that I must now bear alone.
"Ring 'round the rosy, pockets full 'a rosies, matches, matches, we all fall down!" -Amy, 7
My Immortal
By Evanescence

I'm so tired of being here
Supressed by all my
Childish fears
And if you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave
Cause your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me alone

These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase

When you cried I'd
Wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd
Fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have
All of me

You used to captivate me
By your resonating light
Now I'm bound by the life you've left behind
Your face it haunts
My once pleasant dreams
Your voice it chased away
All the sanity in me

These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase

When you cried I'd
Wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd
Fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have
All of me

I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
But though you're still with me
I've been alone all along

When you cried I'd
Wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd
Fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have
All of me
"I'll never forget, Amy, not in a million-zillion years! Not even when the big ol' tree in the front yard falls down! Not ever!" -Me, age 7
"Let's make our windows pretty colors like those!" -Amy, age 7
"I am the Fairy Queen!" -Amy, 8
"There's something special about a rose; even when it's dead, it's so...tragically beautiful." Amy, 13
"Wake up! Come quick! There's a rosebush in the weeds out back!" -Amy, 9