Last Goodbye

• Kathleen Kershaw, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2014

The days pass slowly now, and the nights even slower, I fear my time is near at hand. My life has been full of light and joy and I wouldn’t trade a second of it. Yet the last few years have been rough, after the sickness that took my beloved Cecily I have never felt the same. Grief makes recovery hard, the road back to health is long and stretches even further when you have lost one as dear as Cecily was to me. I often wondered if there was anything left that I should live for. Why should I survive when my wife had not?
Our son had a daughter that year. She became my reason. I had to live to see her grow even if my Cecily could not. Especially if my Cecily could not. She is three now and such a child I cannot recall. Strong and as vibrant as the sun. She has too much energy for me to keep up with, I seem to fall further behind her with every passing day. She is my light as she is our son’s. Losing his mother was hard on him. I wish there was some way to bring her back, to ease his pain almost as much as for myself.
I will be with her soon I think. I pray he will not. I pray he will grow older than me and live to see his girl have children of her own, his wife beside him.
My Cecily, how the years have dragged without you. The children will learn to live without us, though I hope they never forget, and I pray they shall be strong.