Peter James Bridges

April 8, 1956 - June 1, 2006

My Darling Peter,

As we celebrate your life and remember how much we love you, I want to try to put into words the depth of my feelings for you and how much you have touched my heart.  I know that words won’t begin to even scratch the surface, but nonetheless, there are just a few things I want you to know.

As I told you many times, I always thought that I would never find love in my life - - that I would never marry or have children.  I yearned for those things, and prayed every night for years that God would help me find love and maybe even a husband and children.  But, I must admit that I had begun to lose hope that it would ever happen.  Then you came into my life and wow!  Nothing was ever the same.

Not only did God answer my prayer, he brought me the most compassionate, kind, faithful, talented, loyal, sensitive, thoughtful and deeply loving man I have ever known.  You immediately became my best friend and confidante, the first person I wanted to share every moment of my life with.  It didn’t take long for me to fall totally and completely in love with you.  After all, what wasn’t to love - - you were so honest and genuine, and you radiated a beauty of body, mind and spirit that shone through those gorgeous sparkling baby blue eyes!  Your passion and charisma and energy were contagious, and during every second we spent together, I felt like we were the happiest, most blessed people in the world.

Many people don’t know what a romantic you were, but it was one of the things I love most about you.  I’ll never forget the Halloween morning when you asked me to marry you.  You planned every detail, right down to “accidentally” forgetting the card that went with the flowers so that you would just have to tell me what it said, which of course, was “will you marry me?”  I loved that you remembered the anniversary of our engagement and the anniversary of our wedding every single month with a card, an email, flowers, a dinner, or a small present. 

Even in these last few months, as you struggled with your devastating illness and fought courageously, you never stopped romancing me.  After your first hospitalization in March, you sent me flowers less than 10 hours after arriving home from the hospital . . . and not for any particular reason . . . just to say you loved me.  And when you were in the hospital awaiting your transplants, and you were so tired and weak, you arranged to send me a beautiful fruit and chocolate basket for Easter.  That meant more to me than you’ll ever know.

I am surely going to miss your goofball sense of humor and quirky habits.  I’ll miss you bursting into song with lyrics that fit any conversation imaginable.  I’ll miss your cornball jokes that you loved to tell over and over, like your all-time favorite “I hate going to the dentist.  They’re always down in the mouth.”  And this is going to surprise you, but yes, I’ll even miss your peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches!

But, my precious love, I know that you are with me always.  You are embedded in my heart forever, and more importantly, you endure in the eyes, smile, laugh, and glowing personality of our beautiful son, James Edward.  I know how proud you were of him, and I know he surely loves his Daddy.  You are all he talks about.  Please rest assured, my darling, that our son, who reminds me of you in every way, will always know how wonderful, amazing and special his Daddy was, and how much his Daddy loved him.

I want you to know how proud I am of you and how very brave you were.  You are my hero.  You fought courageously with unparalleled dignity and grace, and you never once complained.  You put your faith and trust in God and never wavered, and you were not afraid to die.  You understood that death was not an end, but a beginning.  The start of an everlasting life with our heavenly Father.  You taught me so much, and you brought me so much closer to God in a way that I never thought was possible. 

It goes without saying, that your talent and love for music had no boundaries.  Your gifts were phenomenal and never ceased to amaze me.  And I am so proud of how you used your gifts to touch so many lives.  You lived a truly purpose-driven life and were a teacher of many.

I want you to know how much I love you and how happy and grateful I am for the two glorious years of marriage that we shared.  I have never been more proud of anything in my life than I am of being Mrs. Peter Bridges and the mother of your son.  You are my heart and my soul and your love was the greatest gift I’ve ever known.  And although I feel like a part of me is lost forever without you here, and it is hard to imagine my life without you in it, I will go forward trusting God and sure in the knowledge that we will be together again one day.  God gave us the gift of each other, the gift of true love.  That love will endure forever and all the heavens will be ablaze with joy when we reunite for a duet of eternity in His Holy Presence.  Until then, my love, I know you will be making beautiful music for God.  I can already hear it in my heart.  Be at peace and enjoy the beauty of His Love and Power, Peter.  I don’t know anybody who has earned it more than you. 

With all my love,

Heather