CONVERSE, Texas – Clutching the note she'd written to her son, Patrick, Letisha Clark's voice trembled.
"Words can't explain the pain. Wanting in (sic) needing you to come home is an understatement," she read. "I love and miss you forever. Rest in peace. Love always, your mama."
Like dozens of others Monday evening in a Converse park, Clark's words were attached to red and white balloons, meant to reach Patrick Clark, 21, who drowned last year during a July Fourth trip to Port Aransas.
Clark was last seen in the water with some friends when he went under and never came back up.
A body was found two weeks later, but the family said it took months before the remains were confirmed to be his. He was buried without their knowledge, they said, far from home.
Though they've been trying to get his body exhumed and brought home, that hasn't happened yet.
Yvonne Hickel said she and her husband Lee want to help Clark's family. The couple owns Resthaven Funeral Home in Sinton.
Yvonne Hickel said they have offered to exhume Patrick Clark's body from San Antonio Cemetery near Rockport without charge, but she said a permit from the state could take months.
Meanwhile, his family waits.
"He's not any closer to home here in San Antonio than he was last year," his Aunt, Kathy Clark said.
Relatives and friends held Clark's daughter, Passion, as they waited to release the balloons. Letisha Clark put her granddaughter's handprint on the back of her note. The baby had been born just a few days after Patrick's body was found.
"He never got to see his daughter," Letisha Clark said.
As the friends and family gathered in a circle, clutching balloons and each other's hands, Minister Jason L. Conner of the Mount Olive Baptist Church led a prayer.
Then, they released them - the best way to reach a departed son. Even before letting go, Letisha Clark knew it wouldn't end her pain.
"That's a pain I don't think is ever going to go away," she said.
Once the family is able to exhume Patrick's body, family members said they will still need to pay to have him transported back to San Antonio and buried. They said they are planning a fundraiser but do not have a date yet.