My daughter left today
My very best friend
Moving forward
Life’s journey
My mom is in the hospital
My first best friend
Moving forward
Life’s journey
I cleaned out my daughters room
Childhood memories and piles of artwork mixed with more piles of seventeen years of school assignments
Some I tossed without a care. Others I kept with a tear. Everything from journals to teeth to her final pacifier. Coins from around the world. Paint brushes to hair brushes. Invitations, celebrations. Report cards and note cards. Whispers of a treasured childhood and exclamations if struggles and victories.
She packed her car and drove away with multiple hugs lingering in my arms and sweet kisses on my face. I see her in my rear view mirror as that precious toddler who cried at my leaving for work. Now I lose a tear at watching her drive away a newlywed with big dreams and plans.
I am her biggest fan and her first best friend. My daughter.
—
My mom is medically unstable and poorly responding to treatment, preparing for her journey home to Jesus. Sooner or later.
I imagine soon I will be going through her things and clearing out decades of memories and accumulated items that are profoundly important and those clearly meaningless in the scope of things.
Old bills, photos from a century past, documents and piles of memories and catalogs galore filled with trash and treasures for earthly pleasures.
And I see her in my rear view mirror holding my toddler in her arms and waving goodbye as I headed off to work and she stayed behind to help her grow up.
I will watch her go ahead of me as it should be and she will cheer me on from above as she always has. My biggest fan. My first best friend. My mom.
©Belindabotzong2018