First, I want to offer my deepest condolences. To have someone's spirit and body ripped from this life at the hands of someone else's hatred is something I have never faced and therefore will not pretend to know the depth of your pain. I know anything I write here will not rectify the killing of your loved one, but I can hope that at the end of this letter you will have a small piece of hope for the future.

At this point in time, I am sure you are harboring a tumultuous combination of grief and hate. Your special someone is now a memory and will cease to be a presence in your life, simply because they fit the description of a target for a terrorist. For some reason, their gender, skin color, occupation, religion, sexual orientation, demeanor, economic status, country of origin, or even how they carried themselves was enough to justify killing them in the mind of the animal who did so. The only thing they were guilty of was being themselves, something that every human deserves the right to do.

I am sorry. I am sorry on behalf of the people you don't know but who are thinking of you everyday and saying prayers for you specifically. I hope you hear them or feel them, because trust me, they are coming in by the millions. I am sorry that you will never get to experience that person's smile or radiance anymore, but I want you to preserve the wonderful times you did. Do not remember them by this tragedy, hold on to the beauty of your time together.

Please do not lose faith in humanity. This isolated event made the news and has garnered attention because it is so obscene and uncommon. Yes, the hate that caused it is a perpetual problem, but these killings are the personification of the most radical definition of the word. I say this because I'm trying to illustrate the immense population on this planet that are good people. We are the people who are just like you -- living life, minding our business, and taking action when we don't agree with something. Do not write off the majority because of the minority. As Dr. King said, "Darkness can not drive out darkness, only light can do that." There is so much joy and light in this world and while yours seems to have come crashing down, you will continue living and you can use your anger to make a change.

I believe in the divinity of God's plan for our lives, but you might be at a point where you are questioning your God entirely. I will not force anything on you, but someday I hope you are struck with the poignant realization as to how this loss can help fuel change for the greater good. Your loved one was not simply the victim of a hate crime, their name will be remembered forever. Please know that their legacy will continue to burn on in the fight for justice in our country. People are working, and you may not see them, and you may not see the effects, but they are there.

Finally, I will apologize again for this atrocity. You may be left without a parent, child, spouse, sibling, friend, coworker, roommate, partner, neighbor, or soulmate, but they are in a better place, one in which the hate that killed them does not exist. They will rest in peace, and I pray that your hearts will as well.