Deryk Michael Peters

Happy birthday to you... I've done okay this year... I haven't really cried much until today. Every year on your birthday I tell mom "Happy Giving-Birth Day" and I felt bad today when it made her cry... It may sound silly that I say this to her, seeing as how it is your birthday, but... people sometimes forget that today is also the very first day our mom became a mother...You may not be here to celebrate your 32nd birthday, but that doesn't change the fact that mom has been a mother for 32 years. Today is a milestone for her too. Sometimes I think that you were given to mom to whip her into shape and prepare her for Megan and I. Well, I have to say, you did a damn good job. Our mother is amazing. I only hope that I can be a fraction as good of a mother as she is.

I really miss you a lot, Deryk. Sometimes I think I see you in the faces of strangers, sometime I think I hear your laugh in a crowded room... And who knows, maybe it is you... sneaking a peek at the world you left behind through the eyes of random people... Sometimes I have dreams. I dream that you come back for a day, we all know that you're only here for a little while, so we all get together for a family party... all the good stuff is there, Aunt Shiela's taco dip, Auntie Moe's strawberry mold... and we all just hang out. We don't cry, we're just happy to see you, if only for a little while... I've had that dream twice so far... Tell me, Deryk... is it you?

Today is your birthday.  You would be 32.  If fyou had told me 8 years ago, I would survive for 8 years without you, I would have told you, you were wrong.  I could not survive one day.  How did this happen?  How could you be gone 8 years and I am still here?  I love you so much!!  You were my best buddy!  It seems like just yesterday, I was gazing into your blue, blue eyes, wondering how I managed to give birth to this amazing little human being.  Yet, 32 Years have passed.  I want you to know, I enjoyed every moment of your time here on earth.  I can't help but wonder, what you would be like now.  Would you have married Cherie?  She loved you so much!  What would you think of your "little" sisters and their baby's?  Would you be a dad now?  You wnated to fly in helicopters, helping the sick and injured, would you have?  Questions that are fultile to ask, but yet, I wonder still.  I know, I would rather have had you and lost you, then to not have had you at all.  You were a gift to me and our entire family.  We will all miss you until, our dying days.  Each of us carries you in our hearts, everyday.  Please watch down on all of us, until we all can meet again.

Deryk, you and Jenny are my heros and I have a bagillion things I could say but mostly just thank you for looking out for little me and for me being the lady i am today! We will always be a team forever and ever but just know I may be in Maine and Jen may be in NC and you are with us in every way. Can't say I have been the best over the past few years but doing as much as I can to keep all well, and you know we happened to have born into the most wonderfull family EVER! Who am I kiddin you know! Thank you for looking out for me and helping me find my way.

Deryk Jenny Amie 3 Amigos or how ever you spell cousins in spanish...............

GUINESS....all of us...I love you! Thank you 

Well, Deryk marked my life in ways that no one else could ever have! I don't get to be all sad on his birthday, because 2 yrs after he was gone, I had a baby girl on that day. Now, as I light the candles on her cake tomorrow he will be thought of and missed once again. I have told her about him, showed her pictures and laughed about the things that we had done and shared. The appropriate ones anyways...lol. We definately raised some hell, and in jr high raised the canton to dixfield/dixfield to canton phone bills! I will always remember prom, Deryk's senior year, when he went with Rebecca, Brett and I. He laughed so hard at Rebecca who had never seen a moose before that day, we had to pull over on rt 4 and watch the damn thing till it ventured back in the woods, like 20 minutes later, all dolled up, trying to get to his grandparents house in Auburn before dinner. After prom we all stayed at my parents house and stayed up all night talking about our lives, our pasts, our futures, hopes and dreams. Amazing how life turns out, or just doesn't.

It was my junior year in high school and I was a new student at Dirigo.  Although my Dad was a teacher there, I needed friends.  I am a very social person, but everyone needs someone to break the ice.  Deryk was that person for me.  I remember...it was an art class that I wasn't so sure that I wanted to be in, but of course I had to be.  I really can't remember who was teaching the class, but whoever it was let us listen to music as we worked on our various projects.  Deryk and I met over the song "Would" by Alice In Chains on the Singles soundtrack.  We must have listened to that album 100 times during that class.  He was the first Dirigo student to reach out to me and I will never forget that.  Over the next couple of years we would hang out from time to time.  It didn't hurt that he lived kind of close to my Dad.  Canton people kind of stick together.  He even made my first trip to my native Bethel with me.  In typical Deryk fashion he had no trouble meeting my friends back there.  They all liked him very much even though they were all pretty upset about me leaving.  I will never forget him for being a good friend for a new guy who needed one. 

I will also never forget the Western Maine Regional Final in track.  The year was 1993 and Dirigo track was still in a stage of infancy.  We had performed pretty well through the year, but still nothing was really expected of us.  Shawn Noyes was one of the top sprinters in our conference all year and was expected to be one of our top performers in the meet.  Unfortunately Shawn was DQed in the 100m heats for false starting.  Deryk, who wasn't expected to place ran the race of his life.  11.3 something if I remember right, and won the whole thing.  I am quite sure that we wouldn't have come out of there as Western Maine Champs if he wasn't able to do that.  I am not going to lie Deryk.  I have told that story so many times.  I hope that it is told by all of us that were lucky enough to be part of that team. 

I am sorry that I disappeared off the face of the Earth after graduation.  I wish that I could have known you for a little longer.  I hope that everything is ok where you are.  I hope that everything that you ever wanted in life is available for you now. 

Thank you to you the Peters family for creating this site.  I never got to say anything to you when Deryk died and I am sorry for that.  I hope that you are well and taking care of yourselves.  You are stronger than any family should have to be.