I still sit down with a picture book in hand,
to be reminded of a time when everything was perfect,
a time when everything was carefree, happy, and most importantly,
together,
I still can't believe that it has been two years now,
two years since my parents have looked at each other with love in their eyes,
I remember that day as clear as if it were yesterday,
I was eleven, me and my two sisters walk up from the private beach we go to every summer ever since we were months old,
anyway, we walk up to talk about something important,
not knowing that what they were going to tell us was going to be life-changing,
at the moment, I didn't understand why our cousins couldn't come up with us,
but I shrugged it off, thinking that it was nothing,
finally after climbing up the hill to our camp we, as a family, all sit down at the red picnic table just outside the eighty-year-old camp that my grandfather built,
my mom on my right,
my dad on my left,
my two sisters sit on the other side of the bench,
I don't remember how they eased into punching the final blow,
all I could remember was that one word,
I stay statue-still, my face expressionless,
thinking that I had just simply misheard something, everyone else is silent as well,
and then,
I burst into tears...
Jess and Elina, (2 sis's) still too shocked to do anything,
mom and dad wrap their arms around me, to comfort me,
and that's the last hug I ever got, and will forever be the last one from my mom and dad at the same time...
as time passed and we got used to switching in between houses every week,
I started to understand their decision,
they would rather be separate and happy then than together and depressed,
fighting down in the living room, yelling at the other, telling the other that there going to leave,
oblivious to the fact that my sisters and I are huddling together, silently listening to their conversation,
we never talked about it to one another though,
we didn't know what was happening, but we did know it wasn't something good,
I respect their decision though, it was for the best,
but it still can stop my mind wandering off into a time with us all together,
now, in present time,
my dad is happily married to another woman, I'm happy for them,
my mom stayed single, and probably will be for life,
I honestly don't know how she handles us with so much patience,
I've got to tell you, me and my sisters together create quite a handful,
I'm a good girl at school so I think that helps out a little bit more,
I love both my parents dearly,
it may be a bittersweet ending but it is still one of the best I could have asked for,
to tell you the truth,
somewhere deep down inside of my heart,
I knew what they were going to tell me that day,
I knew they weren't going to leave the game of life together,
I watched and observed as they slowly grew distant with the other,
there were fewer and fewer goodbye kisses, my dad started sleeping on the couch in the living room (I knew better than to ask him why), we started to hear them shouting, they went to therapy together we didn't understand why they had to go together, they started going off together to talk about something, dinners were quiet instead of laughing and smiling like normal,
by then I knew something was up and I had a pretty big hunch on what was going on but I never wanted to admit it to myself,
I was scared of the changes happening in our family,
I didn't know what to do about it,
all is running along ok now,
everyone has excepted this change and we embrace it with our lives because if we don't, then we won't be living up to our best lives,
we will be clinging to the past, and that's something I really don't want to do,
I love my family and they love me back,
from this experience, I have learned that you can get through anything that is thrown your way as long as your hands are entwined with those you love,
I appreciate this life lesson and it will stay with me forever,
it will always be there in the back of my mind,
won't ever forget it.
P.S.
This is a true story and this song up top reminds me of what had happened (except for the fists part)
