to dillons parents,

I was lucky enough to have the oppurtunity to spend a couple of summers with dillon at Skylake, and i just wanted to let you know that i don’t think i have ever heard someone our age talk so highly of his parents. It was amazing to hear about the relationship that you had with him and that is one thing that i always envied of him. because of what i heard from dillon i have gotten closer to my parents and that is something that i will forever be grateful of. I know that dillons death was only a few months ago and it seems for me that when i hear dillons name i still get very sad like i know you do but i justed wanted to share something with you that my uncle shared with me

My cousin Josh died in almost an identical incident that happened to dillon about 10 years ago when he was 17 and since i since i was only six i don’t remember a lot about the reaction to his death. However, since dillons death i have asked my other cousins who are about ten years older than i am about everyones reaction and from what i have gathered and the reaction that i felt with dillon and what i heard from my cousins was very similar. everyone who knew Josh was crushed and devastated and couldn’t help but get sad when they heard his name. However, now ten years after Josh died my cousin Adrian had a baby a couple of weeks ago and named him Josh. As we were talking about this and Josh’s life we realized that now as we talked about him we couldn’t help but smile and laugh when we heard his name. I am waiting for that time where i don’t get sad when i hear dillons name but i smile; i hope that both of us find that time sooner than later. Knowing that Josh’s name and life lives on within our family and his friends is comforting to me and this is something that has helped me to cope with dillons death. I know that there is no way on earth that i or anyone else who had the oppurutunity to spend time with Dillon can ever forget him; i know that he lives on with everyone who he has touched and that gives me some sort of comfort. I hope that your family and yourself are doing as well as is possible and maybe you can take comfort as i have in knowing that he is not gone but living through his friends and family now.

thank you very much for raising such an amazin human being,

i feel that since i had a great relationship with dillon i have that same relationship with you so Love, Zac portnoy