Once In A Lifetime

Own Terms

Melissa's POV

Our trip finally came to an end. Seth and I decided we should leave. My mother asked if I would come back soon. I told her I would. I knew when he got worse, I would want to see him one more time and say goodbye. I wish I could have stayed longer but knew it wouldn't be good for my children to see him get worse and they had school to go back to. We all were outside as the children said goodbye to their grandparents. Once they did, Seth walked up and my mother said goodbye to him as she hugged him. He walked over to my dad and he shook my father's hand. My dad looked at him almost with sad eyes, "Please, take care of them. They will need you once I am gone."

I became sad when I heard this. Seth looked at him and said, sincerely, "I plan on it. I'm not going anywhere. I promise you."

My dad smiled at him and said, "I know you will." He still had a hold of his hand and he pulled Seth into him. He hugged him. I was shocked to see this. My dad wasn't particularly affectionate. But to see this was warming. Seth seemed shocked by it as well. But he did give him a hug back. My dad said to him, "You are a good man, Seth."

They pulled away and Seth nodded as he smiled. I walked up to my mom and she hugged my quickly. I then walked over to my dad, sad, knowing this would be the last time I would see him like this. Tears build up in my eyes and he noticed. He said, sweetly, "I love you, princess."

I hugged him as I cried. "I love you too, daddy."

I stayed that way for a moment as a few tears fell. I finally pulled away and dried my tears up. Then my dad said, "It will be okay. It suppose to be this way. Parents suppose to go before their children, it's only right."

I nodded but it didn't make me feel better. We hugged one more time and I finally left. We got into the vehicle and left. As we drove away, Seth briefly looked over to me as he asked, "You okay?"

I exhaled. "I just wish I had more time."

He smiled, softly. "Baby, I think no amount time would be enough for you."

"I know." I only said, softly.

A couple weeks past and I talked to my parents everyday. I checked in with dad and mom to see how he was. He just now started to show signs of the cancer spreading. It broke my heart. Seth had to work but him and I decided to go to lunch. I got to the parking lot of his job when my phone rang. I quickly parked it and looked at my phone. It was Max. I picked up and said, cheerfully, "Hey, bro, what you up to?"

"Hey, Lissa." Max didn't sound right.

I knew instantly something was wrong. "What's wrong, Max? Is it dad?"

"Um, yeah." He sounded really upset.

"Did he already take a turn to the worse? How bad is he?" I was almost freaking out.

"Lissa, dad is gone." He almost choked out.

"What?" I was shocked. I didn't expect this. I thought we would have more of an idea about when he would go. But this, this was sudden. No getting really bad before he passed. I said as I didn't know how to process this. "I don't understand. I thought he was suppose to go slowly. How...how did this happen?"

"Lissa, dad didn't want to be in pain. He didn't want us to watch him in pain. So, he decided to take it upon himself to end it. He left a note saying he didn't want none of this for us. He wanted us to remember him how he was. Not dying and sick." He explained.

This hit me harder as I realized he took his own life. "How...how did he do it?" The realization started to hit me as tears flowed down my cheeks.