Editor’s note: The Examiner is featuring letters and stories of fallen troops as part of an occasional series that will run until Christmas. In this letter, Albert Snyder writes to his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, a 20-year-old Westminster High graduate killed March 3, 2006, in a Humvee accident in Iraq.

Dear Matt:

There’s not been a morning that I wake up, or a night before I fall asleep, that I don’t think of you. It hurts so bad to think I was not there to hold you when you passed, and it hurts even more knowing you’re not here. I think of you when I watch the baseball games, remembering the many Orioles games we went to. I think of you at the beach and the time you asked me to play the lottery for you and how excited you were when you won $40. I think of you when I go to the grocery store and pass your favorite foods, but most of all, I think about the way you loved me and your family.

I could not have asked for a better son and I am very proud to be your dad. Your sisters, Sarah and Tracie, miss you so much. They have been my rock through everything. They have really stuck by me through the last 20 months. I don’t know if I could have made it without them. We talk about you often and we laugh and we cry, but we know we will see you again one day. As we get ready to start the Christmas season, I remember the look in your eyes and the excitement you had waking up to see what Santa had left. I remember going to your grandparents’ house for dinner and how you would always eat the sweet potatoes just to make grandpop happy. He and grandmom really miss you.

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Aunt Bon is as crazy as ever and recalls the good times with you. She talks about you all the time. Aunt Debbie and Uncle Mark as well miss you, and since you have died, I think we have become closer and I think we have you to thank for that.

Uncle Mark joined the Patriot Guard, your cousin Sammy has your car and is taking good care of it, and Jessie has become quite the basketball player.

Please watch over our family and friends. I look forward to the day that I will walk hand in hand with you the way we did when you were my little boy. I love you and miss you.

With Much Heart,

Dad