Dear mother and father of Nicholas Hubert,
I went to buy you a card. I was contemplating on the size of the card because I knew that I couldn't say everything I wanted to say about Nick in the small cards. Then I realized, that no matter how big a card, everything to be said about Nick will never be said. He was too big of a person to be described in a card or in any letter. I contemplated mailing you this letter instead of giving it to you but then I realized that the sooner I could explain to you the impact that Nick had on people's lives, the better.
I met Nick in the summer of 2006 through a mutual friend named Ricardo.
Nobody has ever made such an unbelievable impact on my life in such a short amount of time as Nick did. Actually, nobody has ever made such an unbelievable impact on my life ... ever.
Nick & I hung out and ever since then, we've kept in touch. He moved to PA and we talked about 6 hours a day on instant messenger. We talked on the phone. We left each other 10 minutes voicemails, one after the other. We laughed, we joked, we became great friends.
Nick was the first guy that I didn't date to tell me that he loved me. He taught me that it was normal to love a friend and a shame for it to go unsaid.
Nick once told me when I was angry: "Don't hold on to negative feelings, because they will hurt nobody but yourself." He was right and ever since that sentence, I have tried to live my life by those words.
Nick was an advocate for peace. He was an advocate for human rights. He was an advocate for spirituality.
It's said that the good die young and that's never hit home so much as in these last couple of days when I learned that Nick passed away. I do believe the good die young. I believe that they've already earned enough heaven points to leave this world and onto a better one. I believe that God wants them in a better place immediately. This is why I believe that Nick has left us.
I will be eternally grateful, even with the grief of losing him, that Nick came into my life because the pain of losing him doesn't compare the how empty my life would be if he'd never entered it in the first place.
In this moment of grief for you that I cannot begin to imagine, I hope that you
take comfort in the fact that even though Nick is no longer here with us, his teachings and his words and his friendship will last more than a lifetime. The goodness that Nick brought into my life and the life of others that knew him will live long after any of us.
Nick taught me my spirituality. He taught me that faith in something bigger than ourselves is necessary and his words have never meant so much to me as they do now in his passing.
My main reason for this letter however, was not to praise Nick ... as I will do that anyway in my mind and out loud when I speak to him and about him. My main reason for this letter was to thank you, his parents, for bringing Nick into this world and for raising him to be a man that is incomparable to any other. If everyone were raised the way he was, and I don't know details ... but I know the outcome, then I've no doubt in my mind that this world would itself be paradise.
Sincerely,
Ana C. Montes
