True Love Never Ends
Fairytales End.
Not Everyone Gets The Happy Ending.
People Leave.
People Die.
I never thought my life would go like this. I had been through a lot. A lot more than anyone else my age. I thought all that was past. I thought I could be happy now, that we could be happy now. I was wrong. I of all people should know that when something seems too good to be true, it usually was.
Things seemed to be going great. Or at least, a lot better than we had been led to believe they would. She seemed healthy, happy. She LOOKED healthy. You would never have known what was going on just by looking at her. She just looked like an expectant mother, like any expectant mother looks. Happy, glowing, excited about the life she was bringing into the world. The life that could potentially kill her. And so we marched on, planning our wedding, planning our future. I was happy because she was. She believed that everything would work out, and I believed her. Because I had to. Because the alternative was too unthinkable, too horrible to consider. So I believed her and our life went on.
She looked so beautiful walking down that aisle on her fathers arm. The most beautiful bride I had ever seen. She cried all the way through the ceremony as I promised her love and happiness and forever. She was my forever, there was no other alternative. We kissed and all of a sudden she was my wife. The way she was always meant to be my wife. I had never been happier. We danced and laughed and loved, and when it was over I took her home. I had our room all decked out, rose petals, candles, music. The works. It was our wedding night. It was supposed to be the best night of our lives. Then all hell broke lose.
So much blood. That is all I remember. That and her panic. Everything else is a blur. The next thing I remember is the hospital. Sitting in that waiting room praying to a God I didn't even know if I believed in. Please, please, please. Not her. Not them. Please. I called my brother. Her best friend. My mother. Don't remember what I said. Don't remember them arriving, I just looked up at one point to find them all there. All surrounding me, with grim, shell shocked faces. My best friend was at my side, as was my mother, holding my hands. My brother and her best friend were huddling together, comforting each other as best they could. They were all thinking the same as I was. How could this be happening?
We sat there for what felt like forever. Not moving. Not speaking. The only sounds were of soft sobs coming from her best friend. This woman had been with my wife their whole lives. Longer than me even. They had been through a lot. And somehow, always seemed to come out on top. They loved each other. They were sisters, if not blood sisters, soul sisters, Sisters of the heart. My brother was trying to comfort her. This must have been hard for him too. He and my wife had known each other a long time too, had even been in a relationship years ago. If that what you would call it. But he loved her. Looked upon her now like she was his sister. Which now, I guess, she was. He is trying to hold it together, but I can see his eyes, so similar to my own, and there is pain there. My best friend, my sister in law, is holding my hand. This woman is one of the greatest I have ever known, she has been there for me our whole lives, and now is no different. She is strong. She seems to be trying to pump encouragement into me with the strength of her hand holding mine, even though her eyes, they tell me of her sadness, her worry. For me, and for my wife and child.
My mother is on the other side of me. She too is holding my hand. She is quiet, rubbing her thumb over my palm every now and then, like she did to comfort me when I was a child. She knows this pain. This heartbreak. And I can see her heartbreak at seeing me, her boy, who she has always wanted to protect, going through this. But she couldn't have prevented this. Couldn't have stopped it. Nobody could. Except my wife. But that choice was an impossible one, and I can't blame her for not making it. I couldn't make it. I wanted her, but could I have sacrificed our child? I couldn't have. And even if I could have, I would have lost her, because she never would have forgiven me. So truly an impossible choice. We must have looked strange, all still decked out in our wedding regalia, showing how desperate we all were to get here. I'm glad these people are here. Our family, each one. Not all blood related, but a family none the less. A family we chose for ourselves, truly the best kind.
We wait a little longer, and then a little longer. Why is it taking so long? Shouldn't we have heard something by now? Anything? Nobody moved though. Were they scared as I was that if they moved this would all be real? That my wife and child were somewhere fighting for their lives, while we all sat here, helpless? Suddenly, the doors swished open, and a doctor came through. He looked tired, worn. It was then that I knew. I must have stood, because my mother and best friend were suddenly at my side. I said her name, and this doctor, Dr. Bradford, looked at me with compassionate eyes. "Mr. Scott I'm so sorry we did everything we could…." That was all I heard. Then there was just a soft buzzing noise, and the sound of her best friend sobbing and my brother crying and trying to comfort his sobbing wife and my wife's best friend all at the same time. And my mother crying and whispering "Oh my boy. I am so sorry", and someone shouting "NO! NO! NO! PEYTON!!" It shocked me to realize that it was me.
It turns out there was room for one more person I love in that cemetery. Actually two. Their buried together. Peyton Elizabeth Scott and Anna Elizabeth Scott. Together in death as they would have been in life. In my dreams I see them. My beautiful wife with her bouncing blonde curls and her sparkling green eyes, and our precious daughter, with matching golden curls and my blue eyes. The two most beautiful girls in the world. My girls. I'll love them forever, just as I promised her.
Fairytales End.
Not Everyone Gets The Happy Ending.
People Leave.
People Die.
But True Love Never Ends.