To My Once Perfect Home

'Happy family' is a concept I have only heard within stories. Despite how happy a family seemed like, there was always a missing piece here or there.

I have seen families fall apart because of reasons I have never understood. Maybe because I was just a child. But I have also seen my family shatter all because of one person.

"Ohana means family. Family means that no one gets left behind or gets forgotten", according to Stitch and you.

I remember when I gained interest in drawing houses in different ratios and ended up asking you to define the perfect home, you had a solemn look on your face as you answered, "A perfect home can only be found within the heart of your beloved. It might be small and a bit messy but full of warmth and love."

Did you not feel our love at all? Or is it because we don't have a place within 'your perfect home'?

Even if you may doubt my love for you, never ever doubt how much Mom loves you. She has never stopped loving you even if you left us in this empty shell of a home.

Every weekend, she washes your old shirts and keeps them folded in that exact place you had left them. At certain nights I have found her sobbing into one of them as if your scent still lingers on it and would lull her to sleep.

All this while I waited for you to wander back to us one day. But when I saw that child running into your arms while you were standing beside a woman, laughing with mirth, I had an epiphany that you weren't lost.

You had found your perfect home within someone else.