A Shoulder to Cry On

The Final Chapter

I woke up to a nurse taking my blood pressure.  Brett was asleep in a chair next to my bed.  He looked so peaceful, and I just wish he would have gone home and got some real sleep.

"Oh your awake," a pretty young nurse with blue eyes, tan skin, and her long natural red hair pulled back into a pony tail.  I nodded my head and smiled.

She checked a couple more things and quietly said, "Looks like everything is ruining smoothly.  I'll be back in half and hour to give you more pain medicine.  You're pretty banged up."

My eyes got heavy as I said "thank you" and dosed off to sleep.

I slept through the night with few interruptions. I looked over to where Brett had been last night, he wasn't there.  I heard a voice. 

"I'm over here you goof ball" Brett laughed as he walked through the door, came over to the bed and gave me a kiss. Oh how i loved it when he kissed me. So soft, warm, loving and that little spark that makes my heart skip a beat every time his lips meat mine.

I was in the hospital for a couple more days it was Sunday morning when they let me out. By that time everyone had heard on the news about

"14 YEARS OF BEATING HOW DID SHE DO IT"

"17 YEAR OLD FINLAY GETS RESCUED"

"BRAVE GIRL PUTS UP WITH 14 YEARS OF BEATINGS"

I, unfortunately, was the star of all those headlines and my father was finally exposed. They sentenced him to a 50 years sentence, but by then he would be dead.

"So what do you want to do now?" Brett asked.

"Go to that little church the whole town goes to."

"Are you sure you don't want to go home," he said to me as I looked out the passenger side window.

"No I'm sure.  I have some unfinished business to take care of," I said in a far off voice as he turned into the church parking lot.

As I walked through those little church doors, the singers stopped singing, the drums stopped playing, the keys on the piano stopped being pushed and everyone looked at me. I looked at them and just smiled knowing exactly what was ruining through their minds. I walked up to the preacher and asked him if i could talk with him. He nodded his head looked at the band and told them to continue on with the music.

"Why hello Amy,"  Brother Rick said.

"Hello," I said with with a smile.

"What brings you here?" he asked.

"Well I was wondering if we could talk and pray for a little while..."

 "Church is over and I have some time on my hands....so why not," he said happily.

So Brother Rick and I talked about my childhood and my dream of my mother.  We prayed and that Sunday morning I found God and found out why He did what He did. I found myself that morning and what I wanted to do for the rest if my life, and also who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

Its been 5 years since that Sunday morning.  I am a youth counselor at a small church in Destin,Florida and  I love my job. Me and Brett got married 2 years later and one year after i had a beautiful baby girl.  Her name is Diana Marie Stevenson.  She is beautiful and looks just like her father- who i must say is a very amazing husband- and as Diana says Daddy.  I pray one day my very own daughter will find a man like mine.

I often look back on my diary read the entries from when i was only 10 years old to the night after i realized I loved Brett. I always think to myself, if I hadn't of gone through what I did I would not be able to help the kids I am now. More importantly I never would have truly gotten to know the love of my life. I don't know what I would have done without Brett. He was my best friend, my brother, my husband and best of all my shoulder to cry on.