Faith

When she came into the room, she realized she was in hell.

Her mother was sitting in the middle of it. Broken.


Memory after memory was spewed all over the floor for both mother and daughter to see. Pictures of childhood. Pictures of high school. Grade School. Halloween. Christmas. Pictures of a baby girl naked in a bath tub. Pictures of the mother looking into her baby's eyes adoringly.


That life was gone. They both knew it.

She looked at her mother, with tears in her eyes, 'I'm sorry, Mom.'


Silence. The silent treatment was so common in this household.


'I learned my lesson, I won't do it again. I can't let myself do it again.'


Silencesilencesilencesilencesilencesilencesilencesilencesilence [neverending]


'Goddammit, Mom! I wish you could just hear me. I'm so so sorry. I just want to turn back time,' The daughter screamed.


Her mom went into the closet, grabbed some posterboard, and laid it next to the pictures. Never hearing her daughter. Never realizing she was standing next to her. Longing to be comforted. To be comforting. The mother went about her business creating posterboards of memories.


'This is probably the worst part of the funeral process...what pictures to place. Having to go through photographs when all you want to do is forget,' the mom thought, as she placed a prom picture in the middle.


Karen, mother of three, two boys and one girl. The girl, April, was the wild child, always getting into trouble. Karen gave up on April, decided to let her do what she wanted. She always said to herself, 'Abe will learn her lesson one day.' But this was not what Karen had in mind.


She had lost faith in her daughter, and on the day when April did not come home, Karen lost everything.