Dear Lily,
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey. You'll never know dear, how much I love you, please don't take, my sunshine away.
I remember you would sing this to my niece when she was a baby, your soft voice drifting through the room as you managed to soothe her cries.
My brother had left her with us a few times when he was away and his wife was too busy.
I'm holding her now, humming the same song as she buries her small head into my shoulder. She says hello to Aunty Lily.
I can't help but think of what our family would have looked like. We would have had a girl and a boy. The boy would look like me and the girl would be a miniature version of you. Arissa would have been the name for the girl, and Michael for the boy. And I would make sure he would guard her with his life.
I'm looking at this one-year-old, humming what you would sing, rocking her to sleep. My brother is in the other room. He thought it would be therapeutic for me to hold her, and I guess it is. She's so warm and fragile, and so so small.
Her mouth was open wide and she was drooling adorably.
When she wakes up, her eyes will open into this stunning blue colour that my brother was blessed to have. It went really well with her dark hair.
She had me wrapped around her finger from day one, like her father.
This is what our family would have looked like.
I was surprised this morning to find little baby Candice (Candy for short), crawling all over me.
I had cried myself to sleep last night in the empty sheeting, missing you.
Everything hurts. If it hurts while I'm holding Candy, it's going to kill me letting her go. It's kinda like you. It was amazing, mind-blowing, marvellous, fantastic, mesmerising while it lasted, but it's killing me letting you go. Slowly, but surely.
You're like cancer. Once you're in my heart, you're there and it kills me, you're killing me slowly and painfully, and there's no cure.
I love you.
Andrew.
YOU ARE READING
Letters To Lily
Short Story"Why did you leave me," I had cried. "Don't you dare leave me lonely, Lily. Don't you dare." But you had already left. --- The story of a man, written in letters, falling into the abyss of grief. Inspired by Hotel Ceiling by Rixton
