My little girl, My first

She was my first, my precious little girl so soft, so sweet, so loved She had a mind of her own from the start. Strong willed like her mother Her heart as big as a mountain, full of love and laughter and mischief I remember the day I was hanging clothes in the back yard. She was 16 months old. She stripped off all her clothes and sneaked out of the yard. She went across the street to "see the doggies". My nieghbor brought her home. I gave her a little spank but had to stiffle a chuckle at my little nudist. She had no fear. One day my mother found her standing in the middle of the road. The door was ajar and she sneaked out while I was in the kitchen. Mom said she held up her arms when she saw her come around the corner and said "NANA"! Smart little buggar, knew her nanas car. She was ambidextrous from the start. I finally got her to use her right hand but she could do anything with her left that she could do with her right. Came in handy when she fell and broke her right arm. One day when she was about 9, she was riding her bike and ran smack into the back of a parked car. Cut her foot so she had a scar. She didn't care, she got right back on. When she was 15 we lived in Germany on an Air Force base. She went to a dance at the American Boys and Girls club on base. She didn't come home. 4oclock the next day her boyfriend came to tell us she had spent the night off base with a bunch of other kids. We went and got her. I told her she could have been dead on the side of the road and we wouldn't have known. She had no fear. She didn't take to Germany very well. We had to keep an eye on our families in case we had to be evacuated. Her independance didn't handle that very well. She wanted to go back to the states and live with her grandmother. So we sent her home. I missed her, my first. A year later we moved back to the states, to North Carolina. I went to California to see my family and my daughter. She was so surprised to see me. Looking in the passenger side window across my little sister she said "Mom? Mom is that YOU?" She came running around the car to reach in the window and hug me. It was her 16th birthday. I spent two weeks there. We had fun. It was good to see my family and my girl, my first. When I had to go to the airport to fly back to North Carolina and she had to leave with my mother, she yelled across the parking lot as she climbed into my mothers car,                      "I LOVE YOU MOM!" I love you too I yelled back. In August of 1979. On Jan. 3 1980 my mother called. My husband answered the phone. He was very quiet and wouldn't tell me who it was. My heart was in my throat, my stomach turned.  It was my mother. My fearless girl was hitchhiking. "Did a car hit her?" I asked. "No, it wasn't like that" my mother replied. I'll tell you all about it when you get here. She had been murdered, my little girl, my first. I miss her so. She would be 44 now. We still don't know who killed her or why. She will forever be 16. And my little girl, my first. She's now her little brothers little sister. But that's another story.