| Mike's Mom |
| It was the summer before my 8th grade year. I had been home from my month long visit to my sister grandparents for a couple of weeks. My mom and I were sitting in the living room our trailer, watching TV, when the phone rang. Thinking that it probably had nothing to do with me, I let my mom answer it. When she got off the phone, her face was grim. "Laura, that was your sister. Mike's mom has gone into a coma, and they're letting her off the respirator in the morning." I stared at my mom, tears pricking my eyes, shaken. Then, seeing the tears in her eyes, I cried. I have never cried so hard for anybody. I had only talked to her twice that I can remember, the day I met her and on the phone a few days before I went home. I barely knew my brother-in-law's mom, yet I cried for her like she was my own mother. I remembered how understanding she had been when I slipped up and made a rude comment about her hair. I wasn't meaning to be rude, I'm just too blunt for my own good. She had cancer, and her chemotherapy treatments made her hair fall out. I didn't want to make a bad impression, but the comment came out. I was so mortified. The day I had talked to her on the phone, I remember her saying that she would see me the next summer. In those moments when my mom told me she was in a coma, I realized that, although I barely knew her, I felt I had known her all my life. "Mom, why does she have to die?" I asked, wiping at my eyes uselessly. "She was so strong." My mom wrapped her arms around me, and I cried onto her shoulder. "Baby, it's her time. She's in God's hands now." I remember crying for what felt like hours, but was probably only a half an hour. The next morning, I wore black, and remembered. Mike's mom was one of the bravest people I've ever known. Most of the time I block out the pain her death caused me. I don't think many people would understand how the death of someone I barely knew could affect me so dramatically. But it did. She touched me in a way no one had ever done and, in a way, she changed my life. She showed me what true kindness and true bravery are. That night, the one thing that kept me from hating whoever had decided it was her time for taking her was the fact that I knew she didn't hurt anymore. Laura Dewey (In loving memory of Sarah Jahn) Copyright ©2000 Laura Dewey |
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