BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES
This morning Skip and I were talking about my
writing. I was showing him the hundreds
of pages I have written in three months.
I held the stack in my hands and said....
"I have written all of this because of
...Lena". Lena and I wrote
everyday, several times a day for.... twelve years. Lena died in August of 2011... when she died,
I couldn't stop writing.
I found that I couldn't stop writing... she and I wrote
just like I write everyday... we wrote about 'real life'... we used words that
had meaning and never used 'empty' words.
I miss Lena with my very heart, and I have to be careful
when thinking of her... it makes me cry.
She was an important part of my life each day, and each morning early
the first thing I did was to turn my computer on to find Lena's emails...
they'd always be there. When they
weren't.. or mine weren't there to her... something was wrong. We would worry so much about the other until
we knew what had happened. Yes, Lena
meant the world to me.
Lena is 'why' I write now... she isn't 'there' to write
to now. That's 'why' I write to you, and
you all mean the world to me. I'm going
to be writing to you... for the rest of my life. Lena would be proud of me.
I'm always 'here' too, when you write back to me. I love the emails I get from different
people, I always answer them back.
'Why?' Because they are important
to me, and someone thought I was important enough to take their time to write
to me. I think you are important enough
to take my time to write back... and I always will.
Do you know... I lost Tommy, Fairchild... our 11 year old
Rottie, and Lena close together... they were so important and special to my
'private-real' life. If someone asked me
to describe how it felt for that to happen.... I could only look at them and say...
'I don't think there are enough words to describe that kind of pain'. I know I've told you that it is the worse,
and I know alot of you understand... because you can imagine, and I know there
are some who have and are now, on that same path I travelled.
My only words to someone who is suffering as I have and
do now... keep picking yourself back up, keep dusting your pants off. Doesn't that sound so easy to do? When you lose your most loved ones, I promise
you.... those little words no way compare to how hard it is to do.
But... somehow one has got to keep going forward... we
all have other loved ones who need us, too.
So... you just have to keep doing that, go forward... fall down, get up,
fall back down, crawl..cry, scream... get back up, fall back down, cry...
sob... weep, but, no matter what... get back up..... after a 'million' times,
one gets stronger.
One can still have 'weak' moments, I do. I'll feel them 'coming on'... or out of the
blue, they can happen. I will cry it out
until my eyes are sore from so many tears, I can't breathe good, and my body
feels so weak.
Do you know what?
'NOW'... I open my eyes and I 'look forward', and in my mind 'I go
forward'... soon, I'm alright again. I
can 'know' that no matter what... I'm going to make it... 'now'. I may be going forward 'in tears'... soon..
the sunshine's warmth will dry them, warm my heart, fill my mind with its
healing light... I walk forward 'just a little stronger'... once again.
I do know that you are a strong person and no matter how many times you are "knocked down", you always get back up. I am so glad you are strong enough to dust off your pants and get back up. I don't know what I would do without you! I have known you all my life and you are a very important of my life. Thank God I have not lost my child but I did lose someone very important to me--my nephew. He was killed by a drunk driver. The man that killed my nephew only got 7 years in prison and that was because he was charged with a felony. His criminal record dated by to when his was 19. Hew as 39 when he killed my nephew. His criminal record was 63 pages long. I know that because I rent to the courthouse and got a copy of his records. He is now roaming around free. Sad thing is---my nephew is still in the ground. On Sunday Feb 26 my nephew would have been 40 years old. He will never see that in this world. That is my pain. I will never be able to see my nephew again---not in this world. Love, Ms. Nancy
ReplyDeleteI lost my father, my brother, my grandfather and a close family friend and my grandmother all within just a few years. It has occurred to me that losing them all with in those few months was, in a way, a blessing ... I condensed all of that pain into one span of time, yet with enough distance from one to another to "feel" them. As I do still.
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