Memorial page for Les and Carol Dotts
Married 06/17/50 - murdered 02/03/95
Dear Mom and Dad,
Today is June 17, 2001. Not only your anniversary, but it is also Father's Day. I have tried on several occasions to come up with an "appropriate" memorial for and to you. But everything I wrote seemed so "stuffy". And you two were anything but "stuffy". Then this letter started writing itself.
When I think of you, I can hear your laughter. Rich, real, and straight from the heart. I can see the two of you walking down the beach in front of Bry and I, holding hands, heads together, and laughing. I can close my eyes and see memories of the four of us eating dinner, watching our collies run and play, playing cards or Trivia Pursuit, and I can hear the laughter. There was always so much love in you and from you. You taught me so much and gave me even more. I am proud of who I am because of you.
When I think of you, I realize that the greatest gift you ever gave me was to understand that to truly live, you need to wake up every morning and appreciate all the things and people around you, and look for the joy of it all, especially when it is hard to do.
Sometimes it still hurts to think of you. The monsters who took you away from us have shown no regret, no remorse, and have accepted no responsibility for what they did. And their families are just as crass. We still have to face them in appeals court and eventually at parole hearings. There have been times I have wanted to lash out and hurt them they way they hurt you… and me. But then I hear Mom in my head saying "two wrongs don't make a right". And I hear Daddy on my 18th birthday telling me that I am now legally responsible for all the things I have always been ethically and morally accountable for, and I know that I will never lower myself to their level, because I would be dishonoring the two of you and your memory. (See, I WAS listening.)
Daddy, you always said one person could make a difference, but I didn't really fully believe it until Bry and I joined the East Tennessee Victims' Rights Task Force. They reached out to us, one at a time, to listen, to share, and to give us back some of the "heart" that was taken from us when you were killed. And in turn, we have done the same for others. I believe that it is what started us on the path to being able to heal. Although time DOES NOT heal all wounds, with the compassion and kindness from those around us in the Task Force, we have learned how to put on really good band-aids.
Not that you will be surprised, but I wanted to let you know your collie HoneyBare is happy, healthy, and goofy as ever. She is truly a joy to us, and a blessing in our lives.
I think you know how proud I am that you are my parents. I always knew you were special, but I didn't know how many other people realized it also. The letters and cards we received kept talking about how much you loved life, how much you gave to others through listening and caring, your abundant joy in living, and of course your laughter. I still run into people who always smile when they share their memories of you. Someone once said "that a true measure of the success of someone's life is the memories and the people you leave behind." You left behind a legacy to be proud of, and we are.
We miss you, we love you, and we will never forget you.
Your daughter and son-in-law,
Jeanne Dotts Brykalski and Robert Edward Brykalski.
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