She came.
She came, and they left.
After what seemed an amount of time so long that I had lost track of just how long it really was, our mum finally came home from the hospital, and this time she really was here to stay again.
My sister and me were lonely no more from that day.
The sad and sometimes very painful nights we'd been waiting and waiting ,finally at an end.
Like a long, unending night finally beaten away by the rising of the warm and joyful morning sun, our family had become whole once more.
The wonderful miracle of course came with the grim and difficult task of rebuilding what we had lost during the time our mum was away though.
"I'm so glad that she's finally back." My little sister Mei squeaks happily as the taxi in the far distance got closer and closer, the engine getting louder and louder.
Her beautiful smile was already reason enough to be happy over how mum would not have to go back to the hospital again this time.
It was a true and unbroken smile very different from the way she usually smiled. Mei was always known for her cheerfulness but the big and unwavering grin that was dawning on her pretty face now as the taxi closed the little remaining distance from where we stood, was a special one even for her.
People smiled like this once, maybe twice if they were lucky in their entire lifetimes.
And seeing Mei's worries finally beginning to leave her after what seemed like a terrible eternity, I allowed the joy tugging on my own face freely reveal itself too.
The day we met our new friend Totoro might have been the most memorable day that would forever live on in our memories and our dreams.
But today would still take the cake as being the happiest moment for us in a very long time.
And as the taxi slowed gently to a halt and we saw once again the familiar faces of mum and dad, we thought of how easy life would become for us both.
We had after all overheard a conversation between mum and dad at the hospital that mum was going to spoil us rotten for a while, whatever that mean.
How we even got to the hospital and then back home again when it was very far from our home, don't ask.
It was not necessary to explain how with happy tears in our eyes, we welcomed our mum back and practically pounced into her embrace in our eagerness.
How she apologized profusely about how long she had been forced to stay at the hospital instead of coming home earlier like she had promised and how sorry she was about the worry it must have caused us both.
Me and Mei shared a nervous smile with each other when mum said that.
She then asked us both how we were.
"Fine" said Mei, her high pitched voice almost bursting into song.
"Not bad" I said, also very happily if slightly less excitedly. The long wait out in the yard for mum and dad to come back had tired me out.
Dad then took over, telling us how mum would be sharing a room with the two of us and that for these first few days at least we should be easy on mum since she was probably still very tired from her traumatic experience at the hospital before we all stepped into the house one by one in time for lunch.
"It's a good day" I nonchalantly announced as I turned to follow mum and dad and my little sister.
But how wrong we both were about life ahead of us becoming any easier.
The end of one challenge was only the start of another one.
Life wouldn't be any easier for me or my sister just because mum was home and safe with us now but at that moment in that time or place, I was no wiser.
So when disaster would soon strike us, it took us all by surprise.