Hi Dominique,
Hope you’re doing well and are extremely blessed by the Lord. I’m doing okay. My friend Rowena wanted to write you a letter, so I’m sharing that here. Love you, miss you and and praying for the day you forgive me and accept me into your life and heart.
Dear Dominique,
My name is Rowena Winfrey, and I am your honorary aunt. I claim this title because your mother is my dearest friend in the world, and I could not love her more if we were related by blood!
It is because of our extremely close relationship that I am writing you this letter, because I want to tell you some things that you need to know, and that your mother probably will not tell you, because she doesn’t see them from the same perspective I do!
Your mother loves you with all her heart Dominique. I know the kind of love she has for you because I also have a son named Jonathan. When Jonathan graduated from high school, he went away to Army basic training, and watching him being driven down the road was like watching my heart being stripped from my body.
But even before Jonathan was born, I considered giving him up to my mother. Not because I did not love him; but because his biological father and later his stepfather, put his very life in jeopardy.
His father was violent and once threatened me inside a church at gunpoint; his stepfather was a crack addict, a fact I did not learn until we had been married for a year.
As much as I loved my baby boy, I knew that his life and his safety were most important, and although it would have been the hardest thing I’d ever done, I wanted to do what was best for him. Fortunately, God worked things out so that we were able to stay together.
That’s why I say I understand how your mother feels, because I have heard her entire story, and I know that although she loved you with all her heart, she knew that you were not in a safe environment being with her. Plus she had no choice in the matter once she was arrested and went to prison.
The day she got married last year, I sat and cried silent tears, which many mistook as tears of joy; because as she shared with me her wedding preparations, she had also shared with me that her joy would have been complete if only you had been there to walk her down the aisle! Watching her being escorted by someone else actually hurt me, because I know how hard it is to miss someone you truly love, and to want them there for the special moments of your life.
Dominique, I ask you from the bottom of my heart to please reach out and get to know your mother. She is an amazing woman, and her loving, caring heart is as big as the state of Texas! She cares so much for others that her own health is suffering! Yet there is a void in her life, and you are the only person who can fill that void.
My mother has been gone for ten years this month, and I am grateful to God that I was able to spend the last years of her life with her. I am also thankful that when I lost her, your mother was there for me!
Even if you two never develop a true mother/son relationship, I can assure you that you will not regret having her as a friend! I thank God that we met online in a book club in 2002, and were able to meet in person two years later.
I could not have gotten past the death of both my parents, my beloved brother, and just last year, the unexpected death of my fiance without her love and support. She is a brilliant, creative strong Christian woman, and I am so blessed to have her as my friend! You would be also.
I would do anything in the world for her, and if I can help through this letter to bring the two of you together, I will leave this world a happy woman, knowing that my BFF experienced her greatest joy!
I am more than willing to correspond with you and answer any questions you may have concerning her or our friendship. My email address is “
ro*******@ya***.com
,” or you can find me on Facebook as Rowena Green Winfrey.
Even if I never hear from you, know that you are in my prayers, because you are a part of my sister, and the people who are important to her are important to me as well.
God bless you, and I truly hope to meet you soon!
Your aunt of the heart,
Rowena
