"Everything I have done in the past 11 years I have thought of you," Tether wrote. "I would like to think that I have made you proud. I would like to think you still live through my actions. Thank you for being there for me, and I miss you every day. If I knew you were going to leave me so soon, I would have said this sooner."
"It was healing for me," Tether said of writing the letter. "I love that people know how close we were and how amazing and important she was and how she made me who I am."
The Things You Would Have Said is the work of Jackie Hooper, a Portland, Ore., paralegal. Hooper, 24, was inspired by the sudden death of actress Natasha Richardson in a skiing accident in 2009.
"It reminded me of how quickly people leave our lives and how we have to address things now before it's too late," she said. "And if it is too late, I wanted people to have the opportunity to express their feelings and know that it's OK to talk and it's OK to have people listen."
Armed with her idea, Hooper visited schools, retirement homes and jails near her home. The idea began to snowball and spread via the Internet, social media sites and traditional media outlets. In the past 18 months, Hooper has received more than 1,100 submissions from across the country and from Europe and Australia.
Each day, she posts a new letter to her site, trying to vary the weekly offerings by subject and the age and gender of the writer: A woman dying of cancer seeks amends from the mother-in-law who dislikes her. A 10-year-old boy thanks the girl who helped him get through second grade. An adult daughter forgives her addict mother for years of neglect.
"People are being really vulnerable," Hooper said. "It makes it pretty meaningful."
