Finding Hope

Chapter 1

An Original Publication From A. Hart(Amanda Hart)

Finding Hope
Published by Amanda Isaacson and A. Hart (Amanda Hart)
Copyright © 2018 as "Finding Hope"
All rights reserved.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and locations are either a product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious setting. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or people, living or dead, is strictly coincidental. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written consent from the author. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

First Digital Edition, 2018

I sat like a preschool child, folded onto my knees. The cold of the light layer of snow wetting my dress and freezing my legs. I didn't care. My head was leaning heavy in my hands, tears running down my cheeks. They ran in a fast stream through my fingers, grazing the soft skin of my wrist. The cold grass under my dress reminded me of where I was. I didn't care. I kept crying. I gently looked up, the sharp blue sky a happy background to a solomn view of her grave. The marker was rounded at the top, a beautiful white marble with deep black words engraved. The snow lightly dusted over it.

Eliza Conrad

Daughter, Sister, Mother, Friend

Today and everyday-your love will be here.

I sucked in a breath and wiped my face.

I was a grown woman. A grown woman. I was twenty eight years old and I felt like a child.

I was her child.

She was my mother.

She was gone.

Those words seemed to pop out of my head and dance around me for a moment. She was gone.

This wasn't the first time I had sat here, in this grave yard, feeling gutted. My heart skipped in my chest at the sight of his grave marker on the far side of the field. I would go there next.

Two years ago I lost my fiancé, Brent. The love my life. My best friend. My high school sweet heart. The only man I had ever been with. We had been together a total of ten years, engaged for two. Taking things slow was kind of our thing. Unfortunately we took too long. He was killed in Afghanistan two months before our wedding.

After that Mom was all I had left. I had never met my Dad. I didn't have siblings. I had an Aunt and Uncle here in town. There three kids lived here and raised there families here. They were pretty much all Mom and I had. Mom had a Sister in Alaska, Felicity. Felicity had two sons who were raising their families there. I had only seen the only a few times in my life.

Mom and I lived in a small town, so sometimes that felt like a big family but at the end of the day, it was just me and Mom. Had been since I was a child. She was my rock.

Last time I was here that's what she was. She was my rock on my darkest day. The day I had to bury Brent. Mom had been standing behind me, her hand on my shoulder. I lifted my hand and placed it there, feeling the absence of her fully in that moment.