a different set of jaws

Dear Emma, I wanted to write this to you, I wanted to say this to you while I still have as much of me as I do. […] So I wanted to come out here while it’s still quiet so that I could look you in the eye in case— before I’m all gone and tell you that you are the love of my life because you make me laugh every day and you make my life worth living and you make me feel like I’m not alone. And if things were normal, then you’d be the person that’d make it okay that I gotta grow old and die someday because at least I got to spend some of that time with you. But things aren’t normal and so I guess instead, or as well, I love you because you stayed. Because when things got scary you knuckled down and you stayed. And you got me through each day. And I hope I did the same for you, or I hope that I can still do the same for you somehow.