Date: November 19, 2002

My mother, Lorelai Gilmore, the most fun, care-free, free-spirited, extroverted and gregarious person that I know, had cancer. I am sitting here at the hospital, near my mothers bed because she was terminally ill.

Mom woke up. I was just there, reading a book, I convinced the doctors to let me stay past visiting hours.

"Hey kid."
"Hi mom."
"Don't cry now okay."
"Okay."
"I need you to do me something."

"Okay."

"You see the paper bag there? Get it for me please."
"'kay."

I stood up and got it. It had my name in big letters RORY LEIGH GILMORE.

"Okay don't open it now."
"When do I open it then?"
"You'll know. It'll come, soon."
"okay…"

I knew what she meant. I wanted to cry. A river of tears. But she said not know.

"Hey, Rory I forgot to tell you something, something big!"

Mom was so pale and thin. She hadn't eaten in days. She just threw up half the things she'd swallow. She tried so hard to look happy.

"What?"
"Look." She lifted her hand and pointed to the finger. An engagement ring!
"What's that………from who? WHAT? Wait……im confused."

"Luke."
"LUKE? Wow! That's great!"

"Yeah. Tomorrow."
"What? Tomorrow? You do realize that you've been together for about ten hours. That's the shortest relationship ever."
"Actually, it's been about 11 years."
"Really? Known each other that long?"
"Yes!"

"Okay, now that that's settled, what' in this bag?"

"Everything you'll ever need."

"Really? How could you have fit it all into this bag?"

"Trust me, it's all there."

"Okay."

Mom closed her eyes. She slept silently………no snoring this time.

Date: November 20, 2002

I came home late last night. I am so tired. School's going to start in a week. God, I really don't want to go back to school.

I walked to Luke's. It's closed, I remember, he closed it until Lorelai gets better. Today' their wedding. Mom says a priest can come there to the hospital, she wont have to get up.

I arrived at the hospital a little after twelve thirty. I went up to mom's room. She was sitting up and Luke was there holding her hand. A priest stood in front of them and almost the whole hospital staff was in her big room watching the ceremony. Oops, was I late?

Time: 1:00 pm

The ceremony was good, Luke's speech was beautiful. I went up to mom.

"Cool, Mrs. Luke Danes." I teased.
"I know right!"

"I know it's a little rushed. But, now's a better time than any." Luke said.

I really didn't care. My only worry was that next week I'd be standing near a casket, wearing black and giving a eulogy.

I brought a camera with me. I asked Dr. Mitchell to take a picture of all of us. Luke in a tux, mom in a white wedding dress, and me in a not so formal black dress.

Im gonna keep the picture forever. The newlywed and their kid.

"Hey, kid teach me some of that French you say you got an A in, what's newlywed in French?" mom asked.

"jeunes maries."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I wish the room would clear up a bit, everyone's like still here."

"Yeah."

Dr. Mitchell cam up to mom.

"Congratulations! I must say im a bit jealous." He joked

"Really now?"
"Yeah."

We all laughed at that.

Then it hit me, where's Jess?

"Luke, where's Jess?"
"Still sleeping. He'll be here at around 2:00."
"Oh, okay."

I decided to nap a bit after all the doctors and nurses cleared the room.

2:00 couldn't come around any sooner because when I opened my eyes, Jess was just standing there talking to mom. Wait, why were they talking? Mom hates Jess I think.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Nothing much." Mom said.

"Hey." Jess said.

"Hi."

"Why don't you two take a walk, I need to talk to Luke."

"Okay." I said

Jess and I talked a lot. And I mean a lot a lot. He practically unloaded his entire life story to me. Talk was really good. We went back to the hospital, it was almost 6:00. We talked for about 4 hours. I had never had so much fun with anyone. Not even Paris talked that much.

I walked ahead.

"Wait!" He said

"What?" I turned around.

He walked up to me and kissed me. I heard the nurses at the station say awww.

"Don't leave me." He said.

"Okay."

We went up to 312. Dr. Mitchell was standing outside the door, waiting for us. He looked really worried.

Then I had a really strange feeling in my stomach.

"Hi, Rory, Jess."
"Hi." We said together.

"Uhm, we have to talk."

The four worst words in the English dictionary.

"What is it?"

That was a fairly stupid question since in knew exactly what it was about.
"Your mom, Rory. She has a certain amount of time, till she passes."
"What? How long?"
"According to our new results from the tests we took, around…more or less… a week."
"A week?!"

I cried. Hard.

I turned around and hugged Jess. I got his jacket all wet.

"I'm really sorry Rory." He whispered.

One week…seven days…one hundred and sixty eight hours…ten thousand eighty minutes… six hundred and four thousand eight hundred seconds.