Remembering Uyen Hegman

Five years ago, on the bluest side of this very date, we lost Uyen Hegman.

I lost my best friend, my wife.

I have thought of Uyen every single day since her passing.  Sometimes, the sound of laughter brings her back to me.  The sun warming my arm might trigger a summer memory.  A bluebird alighting on my fence.  A young girl grocery shopping with her mother.  Snapping a photograph of a sunrise.  Walking out the front door.  A fishing boat slicing across the lake.  Anything might trigger a memory of Uyen.

I have carried on by learning to accept and appreciate these memories in the same way I enjoy wildflowers found along the way.  I was lucky for the time we shared.  I have a daughter.  I learned to be a better person by Uyen’s example.

I have my today thanks to her yesterday.

About a year ago, Uyen returned to my dreams.  Only last week I had a dream where she was standing outside our bay window planting something in the earth.  She stopped planting long enough to wave at me.

Oh, that smile of hers... 

--Mitchell Hegman