Venice

• Erica Mekdessi, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2019

“I’ve never lost anything before, but now I feel like I’m losing everything,” I said as tears ran down my face like raindrops on a grave. Sitting on my old, wooden rocking chair I started to think about the years gone by and how I was slowly losing the love of my life. It’s a feeling of despair and sadness, a feeling I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. No more than a minute later I noticed the set of drawers Stella and I made that contained our ‘strength’, we called it our strongbox. I must have forgotten about it and curiously opened the drawers. Our ‘strength’ were all the precious items we put in there. There were photos, ornaments, memorabilia and treasures of our magnificent, unique and ever so colourful life in Venice. Then it hit me, now I know what I have to do to help bring my beloved wife back to me, back to the passionate life we once lived, thoughts rushing through my head like an adrenaline rush. “Dementia will NOT break us,” I declared with certainty under my breath.


Remembering the most happiest day of my life, when we dedicated our love for each other, I felt like I was on cloud nine. Now I am determined to make my beautiful wife, Stella remember, that beautiful aroma of strong morning coffee we used to drink, whilst admiring the soft ripples of the canal below us. I will help her reminisce the moments when we overlooked the old Venetian infrastructure and exquisite lifestyle through the windows of balcony our apartment. The sound of bells and music as we day dreamed of adventure and romance. “Like beams of sun rays through the clouds of the sky our love will shine again,” I whispered to myself. It’s going to be very confronting, stressful, physically draining, and probably an emotional roller coaster. But Stella means everything to me, she is my world, my life, she is worth my pain. I started to plan a trip back to the birthplace of our love for each other, back to the gondolas, lights and music, back through the canals of Venice.