12/22/2015
My Wonderful Niece Cindy

Hello, Cindy. I love you and miss you with all of my heart. Tell Matt, your husband, and your beautiful boys that Uncle Donnie sends his utmost love and respect to them.

I pray that in 2016 you, Matt, and the boys can come to Vacaville State Prison and visit with me for a few hours. This prison is a medicinal facility and all the staff here will treat you all very good and with respect.

I promise that we will have a nice visit. We can eat out of the vendor machines. We can take some photos and have a long talk. I can't wait to meet you all, Cindy. I will be your favorite uncle. :)

I wish that your dad, my brother Jerry, would be a part of our lives. He would be so proud of you, Cindy. Like you, I've never had a dad, but Levi has always been my dad. Levi raised me and Jerry, and, although I'm locked up for life, Levi did a good job at raising both me and Jerry, his two little brothers.

Levi sometimes feels like he doesn't know where he went wrong with raising me when actually he did a great job. I was on drugs, and the friends I chose got me locked up for life. Life is about decisions, and I made some very bad decisions when I was young.

I have been locked up for 22 years now, Cindy. But I do still have a chance at getting a parole date. I never knew that I was an uncle until Levi told me about you. I'm so proud to be your uncle.

You turned out to be such a good person and a wonderful mother, and now a good wife. I couldn't have ever asked for a better niece. I'm so glad that you, Matt, and the boys are a part of my life.

Cindy, I just wanted to post some lines on my blog to tell you how proud I am to be your uncle, even though we haven't ever met. I promise to write more in 2016, okay?

Sorry that I couldn't afford to send you, Matt, and the boys a Christmas card this year. But I at least wrote you some lines on my blog.

Merry Christmas.

Today is Monday, December 21st, and I'm watching the news. They are showing people families at the dinner table eating a Christmas meal. I haven't eaten a real turkey since Thanksgiving 1992. Long time, huh?

I've missed out on life, Cindy. It's not all my fault, but again, life is about making good decisions and I made a few too little. I still have hope at freedom. There is a proposition concerning prison inmates that could be on the ballot in November of 2016.

If it passes, it will cut my sentence in half and I will get to start going to the board of prison turns for consideration of parole. So I have something to look forward to in 2016.

Until then, I will continue to be good in here. Work five days a week and commit to writing more letters to our family. I know you have a life out there, raising the boys and being a good wife, and you don't have much time to write letters.

When you do have time, I love the letters you send to me. Please send me a Christmas photo of you, Matt, and the boys.

Merry Christmas, Cindy.

Love and respect always,
Uncle Donnie