Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Dry leaves crunched beneath her feet as she walked the familiar path between the well-tended rows of gray slabs. She made her way to the fourteenth row from the entrance, three headstones to the right of the path, and knelt down to trace her fingertips along her mother's name.
"I'm sorry, Mom. I never figured out who killed you…I've looked my whole life, but I've never found the answer." She inhaled slowly, feeling the sting of the crisp Massachusetts air all the way down into her lungs. She'd miss that; feeling the sharp, telltale cold in the air that signaled the coming of the first big snowstorm of the year. She wondered longingly whether her mother had loved the turn of the seasons the way she did. "But I think I know now that it doesn't matter. My quest to find the truth, to find your killer…it was mostly about me. I wanted some way to hold on to you, to keep you in my thoughts and in my life, and that was the only way I knew how.
"It has to change now. I have to leave this behind. I'm dying, and I don't want to leave this world feeling guilty about letting you down. I know that wherever you are, you've been watching me, and you know I've done my best. From what I remember about you, that's all you would have asked of me. I – I hope that if you are watching me, you're proud of the person I've become. I have my share of problems, I know, but I've always tried to do the right thing. I hope that in the end, that's what really matters."
Jordan set the daisies she'd been carrying down gently at the head of her mother's grave, caressing the petals before rising to her feet.
"I love you, Mom," she whispered, her voice thick with unshed tears. "I love you, and I've never forgotten about you. Now I have to go, but…" Her voice broke, and she laid a trembling hand on the cold headstone. "But don't worry. We'll be together again soon."