August 11 and 12th are almost here. It will be 5 months that you have been gone. The Perseid Showers will be here. We will remember you on those nights as we watch for them. I know that you will be with me. I remember when you were a little girl, your dad and I and your sister would go up to Fisk Knob at midnight and stay there and watch the shooting stars. We wouldn't get home until 3 in the morning. And as you got older, I could always count on you to be the one who would say, "Are we watching the meteor shower tonight?" The one time we laid out on top of my car, you and I and we watched an electrical storm in a cloud far away. And as the night slowly rolled in the meteor showers started. We had a huge one fly close, right over us, so close that we could see the colors in the fireball. You were 13 at the time. You always loved watching for them.I Love you, Laryssa. And I miss you. And as I watch the meteor showers this time around, one might just be you soaring through the night sky popping in to say "Hi." I know you will be the brightest one. Miss you so, so much.

Damn the things we can not change. I talk to you... I feel you hear me... They are sending Grumpy Cat your way...maybe he will finally smile when he sees his new care giver! I love you Laryssa. 

Laryssa loved animals. Any and all. If she didn't know what it was, she would do some research on it. She could tell you all about an "Ant Lion", something that she educated me about. She rescued a few turtles off the roads. She loved snakes. Anything that breathed. She took care of baby quails over school vacation, once. Kindergaten on up, while kids played at recess, she was out looking for bugs, handling worms and teaching kids all about the bugs. One time she actually brought a garter snake home from school. I asked her how she managed that one. She told me that her teacher, Mrs. Burrows, put it in a jar for her, so she could bring it home. Mrs. Burrows said that Laryssa was always bringing somethhing in from recess. All her friends would tell me about Laryssa and how crazy she was about bugs. She was a very caring soul.

I remember when Laryssa was fourteen, there was a group of  people giving helicopter rides at a farm just outside of Kent City. Laryssa asked if we could go. I said we could check it out. So we did. She wanted to go for a ride, so that is what we did. We had never been in a helicopter before. We went up into the sky, looked at each other, and started laughing. We had a lot of fun that day.

Laryssa loved dragonflies.

                                       The Dragonfly
Once, in a little pond, in the muddy water under the lily pads,
there lived a little water beetle in a community of water beetles.
They lived a simple and comfortable life in the pond with few
                disturbances and interruptions. 

Once in awhike, sadness would come to the community when one of
their fellow beetles would climb the stem of a lily pad and
would never be seen again. They knew when this happened; their  
                  friend was dead, gone forever.

Then, one day, one little water beetle felt an irresistable urge
to climb up the stem. However, he was determined that he would
not leave forever, He would come back and tell his friends what
                  he had found at the top.

When he reached the top and climbed out of the water onto the
surface of the lily pad, he was so tired, and the sun felt so warm,
that he decided he must take a nap. As he slept, his body changed
and when he woke up, he had turned into a beautiful blue-tailed
dragonfly with broad shimmering wings and a slender body
designed for flying.
So, fly he did! And, as he soared he saw  the beauty of a whole new
world and a far superior way of life to what he had never known existed.

Then he remembered his beetle friends and how they were thinking
by now he was dead. He wanted to go back to tell them, and explain
to them that he was now more alive than he had ever been before.
His life had been fulfilled rather than ended.

But, his new body would not go down into the water. He could not
get back to tell his friends the good news. Then he understood
that their time would come, when they, too, would know what he
now knew. So, he raised his wings and flew off into his joyous new life! 

I love you and I miss you, Laryssa..... 

When Laryssa was in Girl Scouts she wanted to go to camp. In order for her to go, she had to sell Girl Scout cookies. So I took her everywhere. She went door to door and sold almost 400 boxes of cookies. She had sold enough to pay for the majority of her camp session, which was Bump and Bounce, where she got to learn how to ride horses and groom them. She was pretty excited about going. She went for a week. I sent her letters for everyday. She sent me postcards telling me all about the fun she was having. How she got to ride Poki and Babe. One of her postcards:
       Hi there! How's Sam? After we got up we found Freddy Nightmare ( huge spider) again. Then we went horseback riding. I put the tack on mostly by myself! I groomed it too! After riding we did archery. My arrow bounced off the board. Now we have F.O.B.. Inspections over now. Gonna go swimming next. It was great. We took showers. We're cooking dinner. We have a lip sync contest. I did it with some other campers. The song was Love Shack. We won! We danced all night! Got your letters. 
P.S.Write Back. How's Sam and Max and Bridget?
She had a wonderful time. I remember when it came time to pick her up, it was pouring down rain. We made it to the camp and we found Laryssa. We got all her things and suitcase. Driving home, she was talking with a British accent. We were laughing. I was like, " Hello. Where's my daughter?" She said that one of her camp councelors was from England. She called her, Taft. The accent only lasted for a day. She was glad to be back home, with all the animals. But she also said that she had a great time at camp.

Laryssa loved animals. She loved and had a passion for rescuing ferrets. Her first ferret was, Lucy. I would joke about Lucy being my first grand child. But then her tribe grew. She added so many more. She became a member of a ferret rescue group. The ferrets were lucky that she loved them all. Unbelievable as to how she took care of them. Each and every one. She had so much love for her animals. When they got sick, she would take them to the vet. They all became her kids.

Laryssa came out to visit us so I took her to visit her Aunt Darlene and Uncle Gary.
While we were driving, she noticed that they had taken the Golden Arches down from McDonald's. She said, "Stop. I want to climb that." We started laughing. I said, "We'll get it on the way back." So we visited with her aunt and uncle and then when we drove home, I forgot to stop. She was like, "You need to turn around." To which I did. We stopped and she got to "climb" the golden arches. We laughed about that.

Laryssa was able to go with her High School French class to Europe. I worked and used my income Tax refund so that she could go. She was very excited about the trip. And i remember when she was over there. She would call me and tell me things about how they couldn't drink the water unless it's bottled. And she would tell me all about the food and the scenery. And about the Eiffel Tower. She had a lot of fun. She came home with a lot of souvenirs, a mask from Italy, Olive oil, pasta, a Coo Coo Clock from Switzerland, a rosary made from rose petals from Rome. She talked non stop when she returned home. I am very thankful that she was able to go. And that she enjoyed it.

This is another chapter about another cat that we had, that she wrote about.
                                                  Chapter 2 
                                                   Old Man 
We got Old Man in 1991. He was a stray cat that was living outside and it was winter so we decided to let him into our home. His name was Old Man because his left paw got cut off some how. So one leg is shorter than the other and he limps.He got on my back when I laid down on the floor and would purr and knead my back. I loved him so much. He jumped on me and hugged me. We always had to give him Amoxicillin a lot. He was longhaired, grey and white and had green eyes. He died of liver cancer on April 11,1993 at 10:00 on Easter night. On his grave we put a huge stone. On that stone we wrote, The World's Most Loving Cat. I pray to him every night. 

When Laryssa was a young girl she started writing about all the cats that we had. The first chapter was about Sam, our Siamese cat.
                                          Chapter 1
                                       Samuel P. Kitty 
Sam is a Siamese cat that sleeps with me every night. We got him when he was full grown in 1981 because the owner was sick of him. He is declawed. He kicks anybody including me, if we touch him on the stomach. At night, Sam goes to my bed. He even slept in my crib with me when I was a baby. It used to be, if I wasn't there he would wait all night. If I didn't go to bed, he would be mad at  me in the morning. Now, if i'm not there, he bawls his brains out. Today he did just the same. He is very gentle. Right now, he is 14 years old in human years. He's got a bug bite on his left ear and it just got infected. It's getting better. He is the oldest cat  we've got. He has blue eyes.

I can remember back as far as when we was in elementary school and we was in the same class as kids plus we had also road the bus together as well for a few years. I can remember the couple things most from back then about Laryssa . Most of in school had always called her Lisa instead of her full name she thought it was easier for some of the kids to remember. Then she had the most amazing smile and personality that would get anyone to smile in one way or another! If it was just us kids running around on the playground, in class or on the bus ride home from school. She just was an all around great person even back in the good ole days. It is sad to know that we lost a good hearted person so young in her life. I like to say sorry for the loss to all of the family and her friends near and far! One day we will meet again one day in that ole playground again  Laryssa or as some of us knew u as "Lisa " !

I'm so happy to see so many treasured animal moments captured in her memories because she was always trying to save or learn about all animals. I learned so much from her about animals even though my mom was a vet. She had a cedar waxwing at one point. We had many long drives back and forth to her house to share all kinds of crazy stories and make memories. 

When Laryssa was working in Lansing at the Veterinary office, a woman came in with a small dog. She couldn't keep him and needed to find a home for him. So, Laryssa called me and asked me if I would take him. To which I said no because my husband wouldn't allow it. So, one day I happened to take the kids over to my ex-husbands place. And who was there? Laryssa with this little dog. The little dog was 5 months old and playing with the kids. After awhile, it was getting dark, I told her she needed to be getting back. She was like, "Are you going to take the dog?" I was like, "I told you I can't have a dog." I kept waiting for my ex to say that he would take the dog, but he didn't. I looked at her and she was starting to tear up. Finally, I said yes. But I told her that if I had to get rid of him, I would. So, that was 12 years ago. And I still have him.