Saturday, January 21, 2012

Ashley & Andrew

I will never forget the first time I met Ashley. I was visiting Andrew in the hospital with my kids and she walked by his room, decked out in her crimson WSU scrubs. She looked in and saw the kids and stopped in his door. She smiled and said, "I wore these scrubs for you!" Andrew (a staunch Husky) and her had a laugh. She was beaming and excited to meet my girls. She left the room after a few minutes and I turned to Andrew and said, "WHO IS THAT?, she is CUTE!". He told me who she was and that he liked her. He said she was kinda seeing someone, "but don't worry...I'll get her". From the moment I saw and met Ashley, I loved her. Over the months they became fast friends and quickly realized they had both found true love.

Ashley became a Moritz sister, though not by law, but by love. We love her as our own and she will always be one of us. She and Andrew didn't have long together on this earth, but their love was real and true in the most magical way. It was beautiful to witness. She was sent to us, to him, to love. Andrew had said that he was afraid to die with out ever meeting someone he loved. But he said, "but then I met Ashley". He told me he was so sad to think about life without Ashley. He died holding Ashley's hand. They will one day be together again.

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The Moritz Sisters
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(photo by Kristen Gough)

5 days after Andrew died us sisters went and did this:
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(photo by Kristen Gough)

Something I never thought I would want to do. But when someone who is a part of you dies, you are compelled to take extreme measures to remember and honor them. This tattoo is an almost exact replica of one of Andrew's tattoo's. He got his "Drew" tattoo in college on his right arm. We took lots of pictures of it and gave them to the tattoo artist. He shrunk the size down, thinned out and shaded some of the lines to make it a bit more feminine. I love my tattoo. Every time I look at it I am proud of my brother and am honored to have a piece of him with me.

2 comments:

Kristen Gough said...

this is such a beautiful post, elizabeth.

Martha said...

Why did I check this at work and start crying at my computer?? Nicely written E- she was such a gift to Andrew, and now to us.