“He wants to talk to you,” her words ring out in the air, raw and full of pain as she holds out the receiver. I drop the ornament I’d been holding and rush over to her. We both knew that when he called and didn’t leave a voicemail or a text it was bad news. We walk into the guest room and sit down on the bed. She wraps her arm around me and I begin to expect the worst. I feel myself heating up with worry as he starts to speak to me on the phone. I’m very attentively listening until the solemn, horrible words fill the room: “She passed at 3 last night.” There’s that feeling where you knew it. I prepared myself for this very thing, I knew it was a possibility, I knew, I knew, I knew. But I wasn’t expecting it to be true. I always prepare for the very worst. There are a small number of occurrences where the worst really comes true. I knew it could happen… I just didn’t think it would. I’m not one to cry, I can grin and bear it, everything’s fine, but I find myself crumbling, collapsing on her, my salty tears soaking her shirt, choking on my words, this can’t be possible, it can’t, it can’t, it can’t. We knew she wasn’t doing well. That was a fact, we knew about the cancer in all the different places and the tumor and we knew at worst she had a few months. That was the worst. It had been days. He told me it had gotten bad, and then they couldn’t do anything. It was unexpected, he says. I am told to get up and get a tissue, and I am grateful for the opportunity to take my shaking self and calm down before I can speak again. But after I blow my nose, and breath, and think sensibly, I can’t get the treacherous tears to stop dripping from my eyes. I want to hide, I want to believe it isn’t true, because I blinked and she was gone. Death is forever and ever, they don’t come back, and with this the pain grabs at my heart, I fall to the floor and let the sobs rake over my body. I couldn’t believe it. Just like that, she wasn't with us anymore. It was too terrible to be true. Things like this happened all the time in movies and stories, but never to real people. Never to me... I finally get myself to contain it, I breathe and tell myself to get over it. Crying doesn’t fix anything, it would only make it worse, it would only make yourself weaker. But once I walk into that room with my mother holding the phone I begin to cry all over again because the memories begin to flood my brain, all those special memories that couldn’t ever happen again. When I met her, I judged her, didn’t like her, and her kindness didn’t change. When we took the road trip together and she put on my favorite songs for me, she made sure I was happy the whole trip, when she took me to my first escape room for my birthday, when I helped him pick out the best proposal ring for her, when he told me they were going on a huge trip but she didn’t know he’d propose. He told me she wasn’t doing well, and I asked about their trip, and he said that at worst she had a few months left. He would make sure to propose to her in the hospital. It was too late, too late, he never got to propose to her, the only true love he’d ever had, she made him a better person and it was too late. We blinked and she was gone. Just like that. She meant so much to us, and I was angry, angry at myself for not realizing all this while she was still right by our sides. The thing is that you never realize how amazing someone is until they are gone forever.
Author’s Note: I wasn’t going to enter the writing contest, as I’m usually way too scared to, but I made a very last minute choice to. This is based on an event that actually just happened to me (Everything in this story is true) My dad’s girlfriend recently just passed away. This piece was based on my hard emotions when I learned she had passed away. I knew it was a possibility, and you know that feeling when you’re preparing yourself for the worst, but what you don’t realize is you don’t truly believe it could happen. It was so sudden when I heard those words come out of my mom’s phone, everything just kind of fell apart, I didn’t think it would happen so soon. I mostly based this piece on how I realized how great she was, how much she really meant to me, only after she died. I never got to tell her how much she really meant, and it was just really rough to think that. And then like in the story, my dad was going to propose to her, and just recently he showed me the ring. I said, “Even if she can’t go on the trip, you’ll still propose, right?” and he said of course he would. He said she made him so happy and it would mean the world to him to propose to her. And he never got the chance, she died before he was able, because it was so sudden. That’s why I titled this “It Was Too Late” because it was just too late for so many things we should’ve done before. This was so scary for me, and to be honest, i'm still taking it in. It happened so fast, and I can't stop thinking about everything we did together, and how much I miss her. The message I learned, and what it would mean a lot if others learned, too, is don’t ever hesitate to tell someone how much they mean to you. If it’s important, if someone’s important, don’t hesitate, because honestly, you just never know what could happen. If someone means a lot to you, you should definitely tell them. Never overlook time with people you love, because it’s precious, and you should make the most out of every second you get. Thank you so much for reading my entry <3 Luna
