A Year of Her Life

Chapter 23

I am excited to beable to say that this is my last chapter.  Please make sure to read the notes at the end.  Thank you for reading my story.  I hope you enjoyed it.

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It had been over a month since my sister’s passing.  My father had decided to sell the house at the lake because it wouldn’t be the same without Georgia.  Mom and I both agreed.  Nothing would ever be the same without Georgia.

We were in the van on our way to clean out some of our things from the house now.  I was pretending to be asleep in the middle seat so that I didn’t have to make conversation.  I didn’t want to go to the lake house.  It would be the first and last visit without Georgia.

I peeked into the front to see that Mom and Dad were holding hands and speaking softly to one another.  They had been holding hands and comforting one another since the night of Georgia’s accident.  At least something good came from it.

Mom and Dad sat me down the morning after the accident and explained to me what had happened.  They said that there were several witnesses that were able to give a clear picture to the police.  The report stated that Georgia pulled up to the rail road crossing with her windows down.  They say that she came to a complete stop, but there were no lights at this section to warn of oncoming trains.  The report went on to say that as she pulled onto the track the train came around the corner and hit the driver’s side of the car.  There were several statements saying that music was not loud from the car.  I thought that was strange because Georgia loved listening to her music loud.

I already knew what had happened to my sister but I let them explain it anyway.  It seemed to be something that they both needed to do.  The whole time they were telling me the ill-fated story they held onto one another.  They seemed to take comfort in one another from this point on.

The funeral was the worst.  I had stayed with Aunt Cara while Mom and Dad made all of the arrangements.  Cara took me to get a new dress and shoes for the event.  I never understood why people go shopping before a funeral like they are going to prom, but I let her do it.  At least it got my mind off of my sadness and heart break.

Three days after Georgia passed we gathered at the funeral home to say goodbye.  Everyone was crying as they packed the room.  I had no idea that she had so many friends.  There were so many people that they had to stand in the back after filling all the seats.

The preacher from our church spoke for a few minutes about her love of life and her sister, me.  I tried not to listen to this because I didn’t want my heart to break completely.  Instead, I prayed.  I once again tried to bargain with God to send her back.  I knew that it wasn’t going to happen, but I felt that I had to try.

In the end I settled on thinking about what we would be doing if she really did come back right there.  I imagined her sitting up in the grey and pink coffin.  I pictured myself running to her and helping her out.  She would have pulled me on top of the coffin and we would have done a victory dance as someone in the back turned on Purple Rain.  I caught a sharp look from my mother because of the chuckle I let loose at the image.

When the preacher was done, we all made our way out to the cemetery.  Everything was so formal.  Georgia would have hated it.  The family sat in folding chairs under the green funeral tent.  The coffin was placed beside a covered mound of dirt as we all faced it.  The preacher spoke more words that were meant to comfort.

I looked around at all the people who were gathered at the grave and noticed that Russ was not among them.  Chris was there and Bobby came, but no Russ.  I was sure that he just didn’t want to cause a scene for the family.  I had to respect him for that.