Sheila Annette Lee

While the last few years have provided for a tough road, there are so many amazing moments to celebrate and cherish.

I don’t know when I first said I love you, but I can remember the last time I said it. Our conversation was the typical conversation flow, you asked a question and I start talking; as I paused, you asked another question prompting me to talk even more. At the end of the conversation you said I love you, and at that moment it sunk in even deeper. I said I love you back way quicker than I ever should have.

How do you account for the love of your mother. A woman that literally gave birth to you by being cut out of her?

How do you express your gratitude? How do you repay her? How do you really say I love you?

Paying gratitude, I’d like to say thank you mom. Thank you for working a 9-5 civil servant government job for over 30 years in order to provide food, and everything a little boy, teenager and man could ever want. Thank you for telling/ making me do my homework while you came home and cooked dinner. You were always beat, tired and exhausted, but you put that to the side and made sure that we ate. Thank you for always providing me a listening ear before telling me to go ask my father. Thank you for telling me that going to a private boarding school would be a good option. Thank you for always setting me up for success by instilling positive virtues of love, dedication to family and respect for all those that cross my path.

As far as repaying you, I say thank you for showing me how to put family first. Because of your example, I’m able to be the man and father I am today. When I look at Grayson, Vivian and Lauren, I see all of your talks, lessons and actions in this next generation of the Lee Family. Thank you for showing me that nothing matters but family. I will continue to be the man you raised me to be. The man you and my father worked so hard for by sacrificing so much.

To say I love you is so much more than the 3 words themselves. To say I love you wouldn’t be enough if I had said it every hour on the hour for 38 years. To say I love you now matters, but those times when I failed or succeeded at something and you told me you loved me and I said I love you. For those moments when I just called to say I love you just cause I was thinking about you. Or those times when you were on FaceTime with Grayson saying you loved him and he just didn’t get it, so I said it for him, I love you.

Mom, I love you. May you Rest In Peace. Give dad my love.

7/20/49 - 10/12/21