Life has a funny way of coming around in a circle. It started with a hospital room, as a new life enters screaming with all they can as a bright white light shines in their face. Or when the yellow light of hope that the new mother sees as the pink child is placed on her chest and a new all consuming love takes root in her heart. But in that hospital in some other parts there is a black mist that settles over a family as the pink turns to grey as sadness takes root.
***********************************************************************************
It was December 2009, how did a young girl learn the meaning of loss. Was it shown by stark white walls with a dull yellow border, the smell of bleach wafting in the air. Or was it a family all in a room but no one is talking.
She spent her days leading up to Christmas in a hospital family room on the second floor with her cousins as she felt the weight of death on her shoulders. As the days ticked by the same routine when you got home it was into the car and down to the hospital room where she would find one of the strongest men in her life wasting away to nothing on the bed.
***********************************The Girl Routine *******************************
Walk into the hospital hand sanitizer.
Go to the elevator wait for doors to open press 2
Walkout take one right, go pass the nurses station,
take another right and go down two doors.
Go in with Mom and Dad and say hello to everyone. Let Mom and Dad stay
Leave room with the twins, take another right, walk a little more open door on the left the room across from the kitchen the room with a t.v.
******************************************************************************************
The First Time Her Heart Broke
As he asked her little sister and brother (age 5 ) to find his slippers so he can leave he’ll give the one who finds them ten dollars. The man who would drive her home in the middle of the night when she got too scared to stay over. It became too hard to enter that room. She went straight to the tv room her aunts would come out to say hello.
The Second Time Her Heart Broke
December had blurred to January and time was running out. It was time to say goodbye as they wouldn’t be coming back to the hospital, to see him in the hospital bed. That was the last time she saw the man in the bed alive and his calming blue eyes. And the first time she saw her father cry.
******************************************************************************************
How did she respond to the loss when her parents told her the man in the bed was gone. Not a single tear fell from her dull blue eyes, nor did a frown grace her lips, she stood tall as a soldier as her siblings clinged to her parents. They said she didn’t have to go to school the next day. But she went and as she sat on her desk staring at the ivory classroom walls she thought back on the memories of the man in the bed.
************************************A Vivid Memory**************************************
The sky was bright blue with puffy white clouds.
It was a family dinner on the veranda.
The girl greeted the man
“How’s Shithead today” he’d asked her
“His name is Bommer, Poppa” she’d respond
As the laughter of the man mixed with the young girl's, a beautiful melody was created.
******************************************************************************************
The bell rang on that Friday afternoon. It was a dreary day her parents weren’t home that night but down at the funeral home for a last visitation. The dark grey sky almost black seemed to be as upset as her family. But the girl still hadn’t cried. She had to be strong for her siblings. As the funeral began she saw everyone wiping tears from their eyes. As her aunts spoke about their dad their voices cracked and she still did not shed a tear. But as the communion began she stared at the glossy black paint on the wooden box that held one of her heros. The tears began and they didn’t stop until her mom sat back down. As they moved to the graveyard the skies opened up the sadness of the people felt across the county. As they laid him to rest, white snow everywhere except the blackness of the earth where the man in the bed would rest forever. She walked away surrounded by family leaving the most important person, the glue of her family behind.
***********************************************************************************
It has been ten years without him, since she last saw him, since she walked away from his gravestone. She hasn’t been back since. She was only six when the pink root in her heart turned grey.
******************************************************************************************
In Memory Of Poppa,
1937-2010
YOU ARE READING
Life Moves Whether We Want It To Or Not
Non-FictionSo this was a class assignment that I had and wanted to share it is a memoir. It is based on a true event in my life.
