Author's Note: Just to give y'all a heads up, this is a very, very sad chapter. (Not like it hasn't been sad already.) If anyone doesn't do well with goodbye or death scenes, then you might want to skip this. This is just a flashback to give a little more background to Lydia's character and what she's been through in her life. There are a few important statements that are relevant to the story, or I wouldn't have included it.

Chapter 3: November, 1979

Lydia had known, since she was a little girl, that she was different.

She had been sitting on the couch in the little waiting room off of the ICU in the dreary, sad hospital, idly listening to the sound of a long, loud beep that had suddenly come from the nurse's station across from the waiting room. She looked up briefly as a few of the nurses rushed out of the room and down the hall.

She was coloring in her coloring book when her mother had walked up to her.

"Mommy! You're all better now!" The five-year-old Lydia had jumped up and wrapped her little arms around her mother. She paused, and looked up at her mother's dear face. "Mommy? Why are you so cold? It feels like you've been walking outside in the winter without your coat on, Mommy."

Her mother had crouched down to her and hugged her back, fiercely.

"I know I'm cold, baby. I have something to tell you. Come sit down here on the couch with me so we can talk, we don't have much time. Your daddy will be out soon."

"Where's Daddy? Why didn't he come out of your room with you? Is he packin' your stuff up so we can go home now?" Lydia looked at her mother, confused.

"No, Pumpkin. Daddy's still in the room, and he needed some time before he came out and saw you." Lydia's mother's eyes teared up, and Lydia watched, wide eyed, as the tears began to fall.

Her Mommy never cried. Even when the doctors had told her that she was really really sick, and she was going to die and leave her and Daddy, her Mommy hadn't cried, she had just looked sad and nodded and told her and her Daddy that things would be okay. Mommy was the strong one in their family, and Lydia wanted to be just like her. Her Daddy always said she had her Mommy's hair and her eyes, and that she was strong like her Mommy.

"Lydia, sweetheart, I'm not all better now. I'm not hurting anymore, though."

"That's great, Mommy!" Lydia smiled, happy again. She knew her Mommy had been hurting an awful lot for awhile, even if she was good at hiding it, Lydia could tell.

"Honey, listen, we don't have much time. Baby, I'm... I'm not alive anymore. I passed on, honey. I'm not going to be able to stay around to help you and your Daddy anymore." Lydia's smile left her face, as she listened to the words her mother told her and tried to process them.

"But Mommy, how are you here then, if you're not alive?"

"Because I was allowed to say goodbye, sweetheart." Her mother's voice hitched as she tried to hide a sob that had come out of her throat. "I have to go now, and I'll be watching you, sweetie, but I won't be allowed to stay with you anymore."

Lydia knew her Mommy had been very, very sick for a long, long time, and she and Daddy had told her that she was going to have to go away, but she obviously had hoped that they were wrong, people were always saying to her that "Doctor's don't always get it right, and if you pray real, real hard, sometimes people got better". She had been praying every night, and during the day, too, but her Mommy hadn't been getting any better. She didn't want her to go, but she knew, deep down, that she didn't have a choice in the matter, and neither did her Mommy. She could put up a fuss, but it wouldn't make it any different. Lydia started to cry, quietly, as well.

"Will I see you again, Mommy?"

"Yes, sweetie, someday, you will, if you want it to be. I know it's different for different people, but good people like you and I will always wind up in the same place eventually."

"You mean Heaven, Mommy?"

"Something like that, Pumpkin. You and I, we're different. I've always been able to see what lies ahead of us, and things around us, that other people can't see. Some people go to "Heaven", some go someplace in-between. You sometimes have a choice of where you go and sometimes you don't, it all depends on the person. But people like us always eventually go to the same place. You and I and Daddy will be together again, someday. But for now, I want you to grow up, big and strong, and see everything that you can possibly see with those big eyes of yours." She hugged the little Lydia close.

"The same big eyes that you have, right, Mommy?"

"Yes, baby, the same eyes that I have. You'll be able to see and learn things that others can't. Remember that, okay? It'll always help you."

"I love you, Mommy. I'm happy you're not hurting anymore, but I'm going to miss you so so much." Lydia held onto her mother's waist as hard as she could, not wanting to ever let go. She felt a few tears fall onto the top of her head. She thought it was strange how her Mommy could feel so cold, but her Mommy's tears still felt warm on her head.

"And I'm going to miss you, sweetheart, so so much." Her mother was hugging her as close as she could. "Remember I love you, Lydia, I'll always love you, no matter what. Remember to be a good girl, and listen to your Daddy, and see everything around you, keep your big eyes open. Don't close yourself off. We'll see each-other again. I have to go now, baby. I'm so sorry that I won't be able to be with you and Daddy anymore. Remember what I've told you, and always, always remember I love you, more than anything."

"I love you too, Mommy." Lydia was crying hard herself, now, still holding on to her Mommy's hand as her mother slowly and reluctantly stood up off of the couch and broke their embrace. "I won't forget you, and I'll remember what you said."

"Remember to always remember the light in your heart and your eyes, baby. As long as you know and remember that light, you'll be okay, nothing that ever happens to you will ever be able to take that light away, and we'll see each-other again."

"I will Mommy. I love you." She couldn't stop crying, even though she wanted to be strong for her Mommy.

Her mother bent down and placed one last, long kiss on her daughter's forehead. "Be well and safe, baby. I'll always be there when fate say it's the right time for you, okay? I love you."

Lydia looked up, and her mother was gone.

She sat on the cold, hard, vinyl covered couch, and grabbed a few Kleenex out of the box on the table next to her and wiped at her eyes and blew her nose. She felt a deep, deep loss, and she felt that something was now missing, but she knew also that her Mommy was okay now, and wasn't hurting any longer. She took a deep shuddery breath and looked around her. She saw a nurse behind the open partition window at the nurses station, looking at her with wide eyes, almost as if she were afraid. Lydia didn't know why the lady would look at her like that.

"Wasn't my Mommy pretty?" She asked the nurse who was still staring at her. "She was always so pretty. I'm happy you got to see her like she really is, not when she's all sick and stuff."

The nurse stared back at her, and finally managed to talk to the little girl.

"I'm sure she is, honey. Who was it your were just talking to? An imaginary friend?"

Lydia looked at the lady like she had two heads. "There's no such thing as 'maginary friends. Everyone knows that. That was my Mommy." Lydia stopped, and thought hard in her little head for a moment as she tried to process the scared and strangely sad look on the nurse's face. "You didn't see my Mommy when she was sitting here on the couch with me, huh?"

The nurse quickly and nervously shook her head. "Uh uh. Honey, are you okay? You seemed like you were really sad..." The young woman trailed off as the nurses who had left the room came back into the station and looked over at Lydia, and bent down to whisper something in the lady's ear. Whatever they said made the lady's eyes go wide as she continued to stare at Lydia.

Lydia looked back at the nurse, and knew that her Mommy was right, she was different. She knew that the nurse hadn't been able to see her Mommy like she had. She knew right then that if she ever saw another dead person, that unless she wanted to get stared at like the nurse was staring at her, she was going to have to be quiet and not talk to them while Living people were around.

She was still crying a bit, feeling the emptiness that she knew was her loss, even though she knew her Mommy was out there, somewhere. It was better that way, knowing that her Mommy hadn't just stopped being, that she still was someplace, and not hurting anymore, even if it couldn't be with her and Daddy. She looked away from the nurse's station as she saw her Daddy coming down the hall, his hand held to his eyes, obviously crying.

Lydia reached over and grabbed another few Kleenex as her Daddy sat down on the couch next to her and handed them to him. Charles took them with a sad little smile, and wiped his eyes and blew his nose, too, just like she had. Lydia reached over and wrapped her arms around him.

"It's going to be okay, Daddy."

"Pumpkin, your Mommy... your Mommy's..." He broke off, sobbing, as he looked at his little daughter who looked up at him with tear filled eyes so much like his wife's.

"I know, Daddy. She's "passed on". It's going to be okay."

Charles looked down, letting out a sob. "Honey, how did you know? Was it the nurses? Or the doctors? If they talked to you, I'll..."

"No, Daddy, Mommy came out to say goodbye and that she loved me and that I had to remember my light. She came out here to say goodbye just now before you came out. It'll be okay, we'll see her again someday."

Charles looked at his child and knew she was a gift, from who, he didn't know, but she must have taken after her mother for more than her big eyes. He gave up trying to hide his tears and pulled Lydia onto his lap and just held her as they both cried.

That was how Lydia first found out she was different. The first ghost that she talked to was her mother.