Dear Aimery Keith Lewis #1
I wish I started writing to you sooner. I love you, and think about you every day 💞.
Happy Sunday Buhbah 🥰.
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I hope you are doing well! I should have started writing letters to you sooner. It's been almost 6 years since we've seen eachother (you came up to Canada for your 3rd birthday), but not a day goes by that I don't think of you and pray for you. Nana (my mother and your grandmother) and I have been writing cards to you on holidays through the years and they have been put into a box for the future. I suppose I'll still do that with her, but I don't need to wait for a special occasion to write to you 🥰. I suppose it's taken me so long to get started because I've been letting my fear and pain have quite the hold on my life for the past few years. Your mother and I splitting up was quite hard on me, and then it was right into the custody issues, COVID, Gramgrams (your great grandmother) passing away, and through all that, I was just trying to keep going, one day at a time.
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You have been my greatest accomplishment and motivator, each and every day of my life since the day you were conceived (or at least since we found out 💞🙏🏾). I got my master's degree because I wanted to ensure I had the education to back up a career that would be able to support you long into the future if needed. I “retired” at 30 (decided to live life on my own terms and not for a career or job) so that I could make sure I had a lifestyle that would allow me to travel to you as any point in time if you ever reached out. I moved to Antigua this year (the goal was always to move here and continue Gramgrams’ legacy) so that I could build and grow a legacy for you to be able to engage with in the future. Life so far has not always been easy, but I am very content with where I am in life and you are at the heart of that contentment.
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I am sure that in subsequent letters, I will fill in the blanks concerning what I have been up to over the past few years, but I also want to keep each letter to you relevant with what I am doing each week and what I wish I could tell you and share with you in the moment. Currently, I am living near Darkwood Beach in Antigua and Barbuda. When you were very young you used to live here as well. Not at Darkwood Beach, but in Five Islands. We had a house near Hawksbill beach and you used to go to a local daycare nearby, closer to town. We didn't live here long together, but living here has always been a goal of mine. One of the main issues previously is that I knew I wanted to live here and have a family here, but I didn't know what to keep myself busy with in order to support myself and sustain my lifestyle. Now, I know that I want to work on boats 🙌🏾.
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I am currently taking lessons at a local sailing school and I'll be doing my first practical course next week! Hopefully I'll be able to take you out sailing one day 🙏🏾. I hope to one day own a boat of my own and potentially even live on it. I feel as though that would provide me a lifestyle where I am able to have the freedom to live near you in the future if you were up for that, no matter where you decided to live (as long as it was somewhere near water 😅). I still have a long way to go in my journey, but there's also a long time to go until you are 18. Until then, I'll just keep taking courses and gaining experience on the water.
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I can't really ask you about your hobbies or what you are learning in school 😅, so I suppose I'll keep these letters relatively short and just provide a snapshot of my life and what I'm up to. I'm currently sitting at the beach, listening to the birds sing and the waves whisper.
Love Always,
Dada 🫂💞