My name is Pamela DePietro. I am the mother of Lee DePietro. Lee attended Penn State Worthington and was an undergraduate student studying information science and technology. I was overwhelmed with tears when I received Lee's Certificate of Achievement from the school.

I wish my son could be here with me today, but he passed in February of this year. Mother's Day is approaching and there are no words to completely describe how I feel knowing my child has died. I feel lost, abandoned, afraid, lonely, forgotten and, most of all, empty. The emptiness is like none other because it is an emptiness of the heart. When Lee left me, my heart died. It seems impossible to avoid this day when all you see are commercials with all kinds of reminders.

Mother's Day to me is like another wound to the heart. The hole in my heart caused by grief grows larger and larger with each reminder, and the emptiness feels darker and colder than I can ever imagine.

I cry and grieve for Lee every day and there isn't a second that goes by that I'm not thinking of him.

Thank you for this special Certificate of Achievement for my son Lee. May God Bless you all and all of the students who have lost their lives and their precious families.