Losing Him

EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

The summer sun shone, Savannah sat on her porch swing clutching her book of poems.

It was the third book she'd written and published since graduating from Swanstone University and becoming a high-school literature teacher six years ago. She'd read the entire book back to front for a week.

There was something about reading something that comes straight from the heart, especially when that heart is your own.

It was like looking into a magical mirror where you see yourself for not your flaws, or for the features you're proudest of, but you see yourself exactly as you are, exactly as how you've become.

A smile grows on her face, her heart filled with pride as she stares at her work.

She raised her head and stared at her five-year old son, no matter how proud she could ever be of her work, nothing fills her heart with more pride, joy and love than Leon Jr.

She watched as he sat in the grass beside the palm tree Savannah and Mitchell planted there when they first moved in; and blew on a dandelion.

Savannah's son had what she'd like to call an 'old soul,' a gentle spirit who was wise beyond his years; he taught her things she'd never known and reminded her of things she'd forgotten.

Leon Jr. inherited Savannah's brown skin and her out-of-control curly hair and he had his father's cobalt blue eyes, but somehow, somehow, whenever she looked into his eyes and he stared back at his mother; they reminded her of an old friend, a friend that came to say hello every now and again in the most unexpected moments.

Through the whispers of the wind, the kisses from the sun and the sound of the rain, even when she didn't need him, he was there.

She still felt the hurt of losing him, but he reminded her every day that they'd see each other again. In losing him, she found herself. Leon didn't take a piece of her when he died, but he left a piece of him with Savannah, a piece that she treasured in her heart.

Leon Jr. caught his mother's stare and glanced back giggling as he shook the dandelion frantically and the seed heads drifted with the breeze.

She laughed and shook her head, his love of plants and the environment definitely comes from his father.

She stared at her wedding ring, it was a beautiful gold band with humble diamonds. She'd been married to the love of her life, Mitchell for five and a half years and she fell deeper and deeper in love with him every day.

He needed and loved her as much as she needed and loved him. Together they turned love into a family, a house into a home and life into a dream where every obstacle they faced was tackled together and every opportunity ceased.

Savannah laughed to herself, it must be the spirit of Christmas that is making her feel so tremendously sentimental.

Excitement sparked at the pit of her stomach as she heard her son shout "daddy!"

She watched as Mitchell bent down and swooped his son under his arms as he kissed every inch of Leon's face.

He approached her, she grabbed Mitchell's face and kissed him hard, he pulled her closer to him by her waist.

They were only pulled apart when their son scoffed, "Daaaaaad!"

Mitchell was an environmental scientist for a research centre a little under an hour away, though Mitch never travelled nearly as much as he did before Leon was born, Savannah missed him every second they were apart.