In Loving Memory of Digi
Derek Allan Pence
March 5, 1989 - January 13, 2008
R.I.P.

---

If I could rewind the hands of time
I would relive my last hours with you;

I'd steal one more hug,
take one last photograph,
Tell you not to go so
You wouldn't need this epitaph.

I'd give anything for you to be present again--
but past tense is all we have to hold on to.

1.16.08

---

Has DDR made it to Heaven yet?
I bet it has; they probably have games before even Japan.
Are you playing paintball in Heaven already?
It's just so hard to believe that you're really gone, man.
You were still all smiles last I saw you--
That was just the other day--
How will I ever come to grips with
How rudely God took you away?

1.16.08

---

Dear Digi,
I'm writing you this letter that
you may never really see,
but if I don't I am afraid
I'll start to lose my sanity.

I got the news Monday morning
at almost exactly 4:30...
Derek told me you were gone,
and how those words did hit me..

"Digi is dead," he txted me--a car accident--
he was on the phone with Becki.
All of us wish that we knew why
Out of everyone it had to be Digi?
We never could have imagined
such a terrible tragedy...

'Til we meet again on the other side,
Derek Allan Pence, R.I.P.--
and though you're gone we all will keep you
alive in loving memory.

1.16.08

---

A loneliness and despair so deep
It froze my very bones;
what is there to do but weep
and shudder when you're so alone?
No one can fathom how I grieve.
They hardly deign in vain
to try, when it's easier to leave.
Solace must seem so arcane.
And yet I cannot begrudge them;
They are suffering as well--
This is no time to judge them.
We are all in our own little Hell.
So hard to be brave and say farewell..

1.17.08