{"id":342,"date":"2025-09-26T10:03:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/?p=342"},"modified":"2025-09-26T10:19:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:19:23","slug":"celebrating-18-years-of-mamba-forever-years-of-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/?p=342","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating 18 Years of Mamba, Forever Years of You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dear Adi,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month we celebrated another special event\u2014Mamba\u2019s birthday. She turned 18 last week. A big day. A huge milestone for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since last year, she had such big plans for this day. She wanted to celebrate in a big way with her close friends and family. She wanted to go on a trip. She dreamed of a huge castle cake and, of course, lots and lots of gifts. You know how much she loves gifts \ud83d\ude0a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after your passing, everything changed. Her priorities changed. She no longer wanted to celebrate her milestone birthday. And with us moving into a new place just a few days before, and Deta away for work, she simply told me she didn\u2019t want to do anything. That made me so sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew I had to do something. You would have wanted her to celebrate her big day, and you would have wanted her to be happy. So, I invited two of her close friends for a sleepover. On the eve of her birthday, I baked her a Japanese cotton cheesecake\u2014something she had been craving for a while. I also got her a few gifts: a pair of silver earrings, a lamp, a t-shirt, and a candle\u2014all the little things she loves. At midnight, we cut the cake, and she was so happy and surprised when one of her friends joined in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day, we went to the mall\u2014roamed around, ate good food, did a little shopping (I can almost hear you saying, \u201cHow much shopping can one do?!\u201d). By the time we came back, it was raining so heavily. By the time we got home, it was pouring, but we didn\u2019t let the rain stop us. With our umbrellas in hand, we went out again for dinner. Mamba wanted to try an Italian place at the mall. The food was amazing. You would have loved the pasta\u2014it was your favorite after all \ud83d\ude0a. We had such a good time together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we got home, we cut another cake. Mamba was smiling, and I think she truly enjoyed her birthday. I hope I was able to make it special for her, even without you, even with Deta away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through it all, we kept talking about you. About how you would have loved the cake, the pasta, and the music. We missed you so much. You\u2019re there in every moment, even without being here physically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

September used to be so special for me, with your birthday and Mamba\u2019s barely a week apart. I would get so excited planning and baking cakes for both of you. This year, it wasn\u2019t the same. I missed you. I missed baking for you. But at the same time, I\u2019m grateful for Mamba. She\u2019s all I have now. In her, I see you. Through her, I will celebrate you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know you loved her deeply and always will. Keep watching over your sister, my sweetheart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love you forever,
Mamma<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Mamba turned 18 last week\u2014a milestone she once dreamed of celebrating in a big way. But this year was different. With your absence, her priorities changed, and all she wanted was a quiet day. I tried to make it special for her, knowing that\u2019s what you\u2019d have wanted too. Through the cakes, the laughter, the shopping, we kept talking about you. You were there in every moment, just not in the way we wished.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[4,10,9,8],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters-to-adi","tag-child-loss","tag-coping-mechanisms","tag-grief-journaling","tag-healing-journey","entry entry-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions\/345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearadi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}