Dear Diddy

Dear Diddy,

Happy birthday! I wish more than anything that I could be telling you this in person. It would be so amazing to physically see you again… to hug you again… I would even gladly settle for just hearing your voice on the other end of the line.

Don’t get me wrong—I feel your presence around me daily. It’s just in a much different sense. It’s in all the reminders, all the life lessons you taught me, and all the small but meaningful memories that I cherish so deeply.

It feels only right that I express your birthday wishes through a handwritten card, the way I always have every single year, and for every single holiday. You told me my cards were better than the ones from Hallmark, and that I should start my own card business. That’s why, to this day, I’ve never purchased a greeting card—I make them all. I also still label the back with “Annie’s Card Factory,” the name I came up with when I was a proud little girl starting her greeting card business—because her dad encouraged her to.

You always loved my writing and my heartfelt messages. You said it meant more coming from my heart and hand, rather than someone else’s. So here you go—here’s another one of those messages.

Sometimes, even the most heartfelt words can’t quite capture the depth of an emotion. I simply cannot express how much I miss you.

I miss our daily talks. You carried so much wisdom.

I miss our daily arguments. You challenged me in the best way possible.

I miss how similar we were in some ways. We really were like the same person sometimes. I loved the family referring to me as “little Tony” because of my stubborn nature.

And I miss how different we were, too. We could butt heads like no other, and often did. I could always count on you to get under my skin. You loved it. Secretly… so did I.

I still read the letters you left me and hold each word close to my heart. Over the years, I’ve come to resonate more deeply with the things you wrote, and it’s such a gift to keep discovering new meaning in your words.

One thing in particular that you wrote has always stayed with me—because I knew there were layers of truth to uncover in it:

“Nobody is as good as they seem, or as bad as they seem.”

Some people stand out as good, others as bad—often for seemingly obvious reasons. Sometimes their actions genuinely earn those labels; other times, it’s our perception that shapes how we see them.

The truth is, we’re all capable of both kindness and cruelty, grace and error. To truly understand someone is to accept their contradictions and resist getting lost in judgment. It also means recognizing that, as humans, we all carry traces of both light and dark—so we should be careful not to place all our faith in anyone but ourselves.

It took me years to grasp the complexities behind that seemingly simple statement—and the beauty of it is that my understanding will only deepen with time.

Even though I can’t physically hear your voice, the memory of it still lingers in my mind. And your messages to me are still loud and clear.

What I have now are the memories and the life lessons you left behind. And what a gift that is. Most people can’t even dream of being so lucky. I cherish every moment we ever had together, and I always will.

I celebrate you daily-but today is extra special.

Here’s to the person who will forever live in my heart.

Happy Birthday.