this chapter was pretty hard to write because it brought back so many memorys, i couldnt help but cry so its not very long but i did try very hard to caputre the emotions i felt the day this happend even though it was 8 years ago this is one thing i can ever forget.........
Chapter 8
After hearing Garry say those words, I fell to the ground. I couldn’t see properly and all I heard was all the girls asking, “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“Tina, snap out of it! What’s going on? What did he say?” Kelly asked.
I was crying so much I couldn’t speak. It took me two minutes to answer her question. “Garry’s dad died,” I answered.
The room was silent. All that I could hear was myself sobbing. This can’t be happening. He’s not old enough to die. ‘I need to go find Garry. I need to see him now,’ I thought. I stood up and grabbed my bag and walked towards my door.
“Where are you going? What else did he say? What exactly happened?” Veronica asked.
“I don’t know. I need to go see Garry,” I replied during sobs.
The girls walked with me to Garry’s house, but there were so many cars out front they all decided to wait outside while I went in to find Garry.
The house was packed with people all crying and saying things will be okay. ‘How the hell do they know things will be okay,’ I thought to myself. People just kept looking at me as I walked through the house, but I couldn’t see Garry or his mum.
I walked up to Garry’s room and knocked on the door.
“Who is it?” I heard his mum ask.
“It’s Tina,” I replied.
The door opened and there she stood her face all blotchy and red from crying. I walked in and the tears started flowing again.
His mum hugged me and told me to calm down. I can’t stress too much because it will upset the baby.
“How am I meant to stay calm? Things like this don’t happen all the time,” I said to her.
“I know sweetie, I know,” was all she said.
She’d just lost her husband and here I am only worrying about myself. ‘Gosh I’m a terrible person,’ I thought.
“How are you doing?” I asked her.
“I don’t know. It’s still too hard to believe. Today was his fortieth birthday, and now he’s not here to celebrate. He’ll never get to meet his granddaughter; he was so excited to meet her, but now he won’t get that chance,” she answered me and broke down in tears. We were both crying like babies as Garry walked into the room.
“What happened?” I asked out loud as he came and sat beside us.
“He was driving home from doing nightshift as a car swerved onto the wrong side of the road and hit my dad head on. They said dad would have died instantly, and he wouldn’t have been in any pain,” Garry answered me.
I hugged Garry as he started to cry. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him cry, but I couldn’t blame him. He’s just lost his dad and all I can do is try and comfort him. But how do I do that? I’ve never had to comfort someone after they lost a parent. I don’t know what I’m meant to do, so I just sat there and held him as we both cried.
His mum left to go down and see everyone else who was waiting, and I messaged the girls and told them I’m staying here; that Garry needs me so they all went home.
We laid down holding each other nice and tight.
“My dad’s never going to meet our little girl,” Garry said after about an hour.
“I know, but he’ll be watching over her from up above,” I replied to him.
Garry went to sleep after crying for hours. It was pretty dark outside, but I couldn’t sleep. He was right, his dad will never know our little girl, but we’ll make sure she knows all about him. When she grows up we’ll tell her what a great man he was, and that he would be so proud of her and that he would have loved her more than anything.
I fell to sleep thinking of our daughter, hoping that she’ll be nice and healthy, and know that she has a wonderful, caring, and loving family around her.
It’s been three days since the death of Garry’s dad and today was the funeral. I didn’t really know if I could handle going; I’ve been so stressed out these last few days. Garry’s been pushing me away and hardly talking to me. I know he’s hurting as well, but he needs support right now and he’s not letting anyone help.
“You have to stay calm and strong today baby,” mum said to me as I was doing my hair.
“I know. I don’t want to go. I’ve never been to a funeral, but I need to be there for Garry and his mum even though he probably doesn’t want me there,” I said
“I’m sure he does honey. He just needs time to grieve his loss. He’s lost his dad; that’s a pretty big thing to happen in the life of a child,” mum answered.
We were dressed and ready to leave for the cemetery.
When we arrived there were heaps of people, including families from school and the kids who haven’t seen me since I stopped going to school a few weeks ago. I was a little embarrassed because I looked huge wearing a black knee length dress.
I was getting stares and strange looks from a lot of the guest’s, but I didn’t let it bother me. We made our way inside for the service.
As people read their speeches about Garry’s dad, I couldn’t help it I had to cry. His dad was such a great guy; everyone was going to miss him.
Throughout the ceremony I was having small pains in my stomach and back, but I didn’t say anything. I just sat there and listened.
Garry hopped up to the microphone and started reading his speech. He couldn’t do it on his own so his mum stood up with him. He spoke of how his dad would take him fishing, and how he taught him to ride his bike, and a lot of other thing that’s he did with him during his childhood. But the bit that got me was when he said, “My dad’s not going to be here when I become a father. When my little girl enters this world my dad won’t be here to hold her or kiss her. My dad won’t get to listen to me tell my daughter I will love her for the rest of her life. He won’t get to see me get married. He won’t get to see a lot of things, but the most important thing is he will miss out on seeing his granddaughter grow up,” he finished his speech and I couldn’t help it, I had to go outside. I stood up and walked out. Everyone turned to look at me, but I couldn’t stand it anymore. I couldn’t be stuck in there.
I stood outside by myself and the fresh air smelt amazing. After about five minutes of just standing there I got this massive pain in the front of my stomach. I leaned over and waited for it end, it lasted about thirty five seconds, but it finally stopped.
After the service everyone exited the chapel and stood around talking and saying how lovely the service was, and that they were all going to move on to the wake.
I didn’t see Garry again until dad, mum and I arrived at his house for the wake. I didn’t feel like being around everyone, so I just went straight into Garry’s room and lay on his bed.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Garry said as he walked in the door. He sat on the bed beside me and rubbed my stomach.
“What you said today was beautiful,” I told him, but I felt like crap and just wanted to sleep. That’s when I got another pain. I pulled my legs up to my chest, well as close as I could get.
“What’s wrong are you? Is Chloe okay?” Garry asked in a panic.
“It hurts!” I screamed at him and he went running out of the room.
A minute later he ran back in with my mum and his behind him.
“What happened?” my mum asked.
“I got a pain! It really hurt,” I told her.
“Have you only had one pain,” Garry’s mum asked.
“No. I got a couple at the service, but they weren’t too bad,” I told them all.
Mum, Jill, Garry and I arrived at the hospital; they took me straight up to maternity to get me checked out.
“Everything seems to be okay. You’re not in labor just yet, but you need to stay as calm as possible because stress can make you go into labor early. You still have a few weeks left,” the midwife told us.
She said I should stay on bed rest for the last few weeks and to stay away from anything that can cause me stress.
Mum agreed that I will be better off on bed rest and had organized to have time off work.