LOSS OF A LOVED ONE PART 2

This is Lola's version. She's an expert storyteller.
Enjoy


“Mum you never speak of grandma. Can you tell us a story about her?”, said my daughter Aaliyah.

I sighed. “Okay”

“What you won’t do for love played in the background as we all looked on at the family reunion. It was a warm Summer evening and mum looked at us smiling. She seemed pale as of late, but blamed it on stress. She tried to dance, but she was different. Dad assisted her to the chair and I got a bit worried. She gave me a look to not be as worried, but it’s my mum why wouldn’t I be?

Once the party was over, she called for us. My dad was seated by her with his hand on her right leg. My brother sat across them on the chair, my older sister walked into the living room with leftovers in her hands, and I just stood there.

“What’s wrong mummy?”, I asked. She sighed and we all adjusted our postures. The air was tense and so were we. My mum looked at each of us and smiled. “It was never my intention to hide this from you guys but I was diagnosed last winter with Leukaemia. Your dad and I thought the chemo worked, but it’s back and now I don’t think I have much time left”.

You could cut the tension in the air with a knife. Maybe it was the pain, but I couldn’t handle it as much. I just needed to breathe so I walked out. Maybe cause I was the youngest or cause I was the closest to my mum, but that news broke my heart. I felt my feet move, but had no idea where it was heading to. I got to the gate of our house and I felt this pain and soon enough I screamed with tears coming down my eyes. I stayed there for a while thinking “why?”. Why do you punish the good ones? Why would she be going through so much? Why? Why? Why?!

My sister found me what seemed to be hours later but turned out to be minutes. She hugged me and told me we would get through this. I went back to the house and hugged my mum. She whispered that she loves me. If I knew that night would be the last time I would ever hear her talk, I would have hugged her longer. Moments after that became a blur. Mum lived in the hospital, I watched doctors go into her room day and night to try all they can. She was at the final stage and was suffering. She couldn’t speak, or talk. All she could do was look at us. She smiled at us and within 2 weeks, she was gone. Just like that.

And then the dreaded day came.

“Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate the life of our sister, mother, wife and friend. She was a light in everyone’s life...”
She indeed was.

 They tell you that the moment you lose that person is the hardest, I disagree. The hardest is the moment when something big happens in your life and you want to tell that one person and realize they are no longer there. It could be weeks, months or even years later.  No one teaches you how to handle loss. How to handle losing someone after they have been through so much. After you’ve watched them suffer. My mum was a fighter and now there’s nothing left..

“I lost my mummy to cancer”, I said as tears fell from my eyes.

“Sorry mummy”, said Aaliyah as she grabbed  my hands and wiped my tears.