A Poem for Hunter Terrel

You had a way of seeing the world
without hard edges
like everything deserved kindness first,
like people were worth believing in
even when they forgot how to believe in themselves.
I didn’t say it enough,
but I saw that in you.
I still do.

There was a battle you fought
where no one could reach,
no map, no warning, no clear cry for help
just silence growing louder
behind your eyes.
And I wish
God, I wish
I had known how to break through it,
how to stand between you and that final moment,
how to remind you of your own light
when it felt too far away to touch.

But all I have now
are these pieces of you
that refuse to fade
your laughter in the air,
your goodness stitched into memory,
your absence shaping every room differently.

You are missed
in ways words can’t hold,
in ways time won’t soften, though stories are told.
Not forgotten never that, not now, not again,
you live in the echoes, in hearts you still mend.

I will try every day
to be as pure hearted as you were,
to meet people with the same open hands,
to choose kindness when it’s hardest, to stand where you stand,
to see all the good the way that you can.

And maybe that’s how you stay
not just in memory, but lighting the way,
in every small kindness, in words that we say,
in every bright dawn that follows the gray.

Hunter,
if love could have saved you, you’d still be right here,
so I’ll carry it forward, year after year
for you, for your light, for all you held true,
for those still fighting the battles we don’t know.

You are loved beyond measure, more than words can say,
and missed every moment of every day.
Forever remembered, in all that we do
dearly, deeply, we carry you