I have been privileged in my lifetime to hold love in my arms. To feel love in my heart, to sing songs of joy for life that is pure, sweet and good. I have had blessings showered upon me that I did not count. Not because there were too many to count, but because, in my ignorance, they were not recognized.I have had all this and more, for I have had the love of a child. And in that love, there is the perfection that those who have never shared this experience spend a lifetime searching for. And I knew here was love so perfect that I quake at my inadequacies, at my inability, to express the grandeur of a child's love. And now to my great sorrow, I also know what I did not know before. There are some things that are much worse than dying. There is the sorrow of living and not recognizing until you have lost that love, just how great it is. There surely is a dwelling place in the heart, and in the mind and soul, in the very essence of our being that houses the love and memories of those who have left us. And I would like to think that we carry this part of us into eternity. This love is the tie that unites us, and holds us, binds us to one another forever. Telling Nikki's Life is the story of that love.