Dear Amanda,

How have you been? I hope everything is all well there in New York. I heard you were transferred in the city because you
got promoted.

I am sorry for informally writing this letter to you. I know we have only met once or twice in the nursing home. I hope you
could excuse my impoliteness. Your Nana Linda, so sweet and loving, looks for you day by day. She constantly asks me when
you are going to visit her again. I could not tell her that you have been relocated in New York because your mother told me
so. She said it would make your Nana Linda very lonely if she knew that you are a couple of miles away from her.

One night, I was checking up on her when she suddenly became so frantic in bed. She could barely recognize me because
of the dimness of the light but she hugged me and sobbed as she said your name. This went on for a couple of nights which
made it too unbearable for me to endure. We did not know what else we could do to help your Nana, so we made a knitted
sweater of red and yellow and gave it to her. At first, she did not want to receive the sweater because it may not be hers;
but we simply made up a story that you sent it over to give to her because winter was coming. If only you could see her face
that time, it was so bright and cheerful. The last time we saw her that way was during the time you visited her over a year
ago. Even at days when the temperature was off or the day is a little sunny, she would still wear the sweater. In bed when
she is asleep, she wears it and shelters it as if it was a wee baby. Lucky are those days when she falls asleep without it so we
can laundry it and make sure it is hygienic for her to use.

Your Nana keeps it every day. Some days, we bring her up to dye her hair so she would still look presentable. But she would
always say no and tell us that you are coming over to do it for her. Even when some families visit the shelter to check on
their family members, she would stay in a corner and look at them. She tells us that you were just busy or she was being too
impatient that is why you have not been here yet.

One winter night, we were all alarmed when the nurse who was checking the rooms found out your Nana went missing. She
could not find her, even in the other rooms or the corridors. Everyone was already worried of her. We almost reported her
to the police, until someone saw her sleeping by the fire place. I slowly woke her up and the first thing she asked me was,
“Is Amanda here?”. Her eyes were full of longingness and waiting as if she was there in the nursing home to endure such
agony. I shook my head and she smiled bitterly. “Did I make everyone worry? I am sorry. I just thought Amanda would be
very scared at times like these. I used to tell her stories by the fire place during winter nights. She could not sleep by her
room alone that time, so I told her stories until she gets drowsy and sleep in my arms. I often carry her to bed so she could
sleep well with no fear and nightmares,” she said. You know what was there? It was the sweater we gave her. She thought
of it as if it was you. When we heard her story and saw the sweater she had in her arms, everyone cried. That was when we
realized how many lives are being saddened in nursing homes. That was the very moment we understood the pain and
agony of waiting and longingness. In that very point of my life, I realized I was not only working to earn but I am helping
these people greater reasons to live their lives as they wait for their loved ones to see them.

I know that I am in no position to ask you of this, nor the right to ask you for this request. But still, I am very willing to take
the risk and make it worthy. I know you are a busy person with tight and hectic schedules and never-ending work demands.
A trip here in the nursing home would probably strain you or frustrate you thinking that the time you supposedly used here
could be your day off from work. But one single day will become invaluable if you spend it with someone who has waited a
year for you to come back. Can you come over and see your Nana? It truly is too much for me to ask, but I know that the
moment she sees you, will be the moment she will be back into her usual cheerful self. Your Nana loves you with all her
heart and soul; she would trade anything just to see you and be with you.

I know that the intensity of your Nana’s love is also as great and beautiful as the affection you have for her. I am hoping that
one day, I would see you again in the nursing home with smiles and laughs with your Nana. For the meantime, I would let
her keep the sweater we knitted so she would feel that she is never alone and you are always with her. Until then, I hope
you could bring her a new sweater, may it be in red, orange or yellow, but at least something that truly came from you.
Love,

Kimberly