"A Lost Life"

"A Lost Life"

Before I opened the door to the hosptial room number 205, I took a deep breath, realizing everything is about to change. I had gotten a phone call from my older brother, Dave, informing me that my mother, who had been suffering from lung cancer, was on her last leg. I was twelve hours away from Dallas, Texas, where my mother was checked in at Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, but i caught the first flight back, hopefully in time to say my goodbyes to the woman who meant most to me in my life.

My mother looked so fragile in her cold, metal hospital bed and the pastel picture hanging on the wall looked as if it were painted only with dark colors of black and grey. My two sisters, Jan and Sarah, had almost used up the whole box of Kleenex tissues that sat beside the bed. Trying to distract myself, I reached to grab the empty box and throw it in the trash can on the floor. As I was doing so, she gently grabbed my arm to get my attention. Faintly, I could hear her trying to whisper something while she was gasping for air. This all together broke my heart and it was all I could do to take a deep breath and lean in to see what she wanted to tell me. My mother and I were always really close because I had suffered from anxiety and she was always there to comfort me when I had an attack. When I leaned in to listen to her faint, shaking voice, she whispered the words "I love you" and shortly after that, almost before I could tell her that I loved her too, she took her last breath.

As my sisters and my brother cried, suprisingly my tears stopped because in that moment, I found comfort from the words my mother had said and that I had the chance to tell her how I felt before she passed. I also found comfort knowing that she would be in heaven now with my dad, the love of her life, who had died exactly two years ago from that day.