The Locket

The locket. The only thing that remains from someones life. I have the locket now. Inscribed with the word "ALWAYS". Inside a picture of a woman named Sarah Rose, her mother. Another picture of a little girl named Lee Joan kissing her mothers cheek. What a tender moment captured in time. The locket stays in my jewelry box along with her birth certificate, her parents marriage license, and her bible. I see it every morning when I wake and get ready for my day. She is gone...two years this Christmas Eve. She made the promise she wouldn't go on my birthday, the 23rd, or on Christmas day. She kept that promise to me. It was one of many promises that we made to one another. So many of which will remain close to my heart, being played out daily. We were friends, we were family, when so many others turned their back on her. I became her caretaker. Protecting her from the vicious lies. She was not well. The system let her down. Many of those around her let her down. "Why do you continue to help her"? She was one of God's children. Many didn't know her. They didn't take the time. Writing her off as crazy. Though others saw what I saw. Funny, brilliant, inquisitive, she could light up a room telling her stories. Some were true, others just a figment of her imagination. The lines so blurred that she didn't know the difference between reality and the lies. My heart ached for her, so terribly tortured with the games that her mind played on her. If only you had taken the time to get to know her like I knew her. Nothing is left. Nothing remains from her life. No family, no friends, no possessions. Only the locket that I keep remains. I think of her every single day. I thank her for letting her guard down and letting some of us in...in trusting us. Those of you who did know her may not realize it, but she taught us all so many lessons. About tenderness, about compassion, about forgiveness and about the good in people, helping one another. AML took the burden on when I could not go on any longer. I wasn't there the moment she took her last breath. That is the only moment in my life I regret. I hope someday I can forgive myself and move on from that guilt. Her last words to me were labored as she struggled to ask for my forgiveness. She told me to go home to my family. Finally, a "yabba, dabba, do". I know for a fact she was hand picked by God to come into my life, for that I will praise him.