Bleeding Souls

Ch. 40-My Tia Isiana

Hello again. Yet another step closer to the end. I hope you are ready because its closer than you think. Have you read all the previous chapters? Are you caught up? I hope so because you must be caught up. Anyways, enough with the stalling. Let's continue. Oh I almost forgot, You will need the music for this one if you are following rule 3.

     For this chapter to make the most sense I need to go back, I mean WAY back into time. So let me start from the beginning. As I mentioned before my mother is not from around here, she is actually originally from the Dominican Republic, and came to the United States in search of a better life which she did find. However, this came at a great cost to her. You see my mother was not an only child, she had 2 brothers and 1 older sister. She loved them very dearly but she wanted to make something of herself and didn't want to be stuck in the same place for the rest of her life. She got her opportunity but she had to leave her family behind because they couldn't afford to send them all to America. Fast-forward a few years, me and my sister had been born but our aunt never got to see us because she was still living in the Dominican Republic. Finally, an opportunity presented itself, when me and my sister were finally old enough to fly my mother jumped at the chance to show her kids to her sister.

    So she bought tickets to fly to Dominican Republic. She was so excited because she hadn't seen her sister in over 10 years. I had never seen my mom get excited about anything so this was a new side of her that I got to see. We flew for hours and hours. The closer we got the more energetic my mother became to see her sister. Finally, we landed in Santiago, DR. This was my first time ever leaving the country, and it was exciting because everything was so much different over there than back at home. So me being around 8 years at the time, was to busy taking in the sights and surroundings. But then she arrived... My Tia Bedusa (Tia is Spanish for aunt). She was a little shorter than my mother, a lighter skin tone, but just as loud if not louder than my mother. When she saw my mother she screamed out of pure joy and excitement. My mother lunged towards her sister and they both held each other and cried tears of joy. 

     My mother pulled her sister over towards us and introduced us. She said: "Look Isiana, this is your nephew Allen, and your niece Illiana." A single tear came down her eye as she looked down on us with pride. This was the first time that she had seen me and my sister in person, my mom would mail photos of us to her so that she could watch her niece and nephew grow up. My mother and her sister picked up right where they left off like nothing ever happened, they were so happy to see each other that they forgot about the distance. She took us back to her house and we were just a family. This side of my family had always been missing because of the distance that separated us. Time passed and we would spend as much time with her as possible because we never knew when the next time we would get to come and see her would be. 

     The thing about my aunt is that she was very compassionate, loving, energetic, and kind. She would always spoil us rotten when we came to visit, we never got to come and visit very often because of the distance so every time we came over it was a special occasion. She treated us like we were royalty and she loved us unconditionally. It was a safe haven that I loved coming back to whenever we came to visit. My only wish is that we could have visited more often...

     As the years went on we visited her less and less because the price of airplane tickets kept rising. However, we would soon come to regret this. As time went on my aunts health began to deteriorate. She started having strokes and heart attacks, but she didn't tell us any of this because she didn't want us to worry about her but she only got worse... 

     Fast-forward back to my senior year and it is December. We haven't heard from Isiana for quite sometime, but we weren't worried because we did not think anything of it. The choir director was taking us to sing at a cafe as community service for people who were down on their luck or who just wanted to her the choir sing. We sang carols to the dinner guests because Christmas was only a few days away. After we got done singing, the cafe staff offered some food to the group, me and my sister declined because we had plans to go eat out afterwards. While waiting in line my sister got a call from our mother. She answered talked to my mother and she started to cry, so she raced outside out of view from everyone. I followed her and asked 

     "What's wrong?!"  she turned to me her eyes red from tears, and said that "Isiana is dead..." my aunt had been rushed to the hospital and died. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. We had just gotten over the death of my Uncle Scott and the world took yet another individual that made me feel special away from me. I was shocked and didn't know what to feel... the emotions rushing through me: anger, sadness, grief... They all hit me like a tidal wave. All those memories I had of my aunt, and I would never get to make new ones with her, because she was gone... After finishing at the cafe the bus ride home was long... my sister resting her head on my shoulder not knowing what to do next we just sat there in silence. We finally got home and mom was in shambles. She was collapsing from grief and was losing her grip on reality. She refused to believe that her sister was gone, but she was...

     The next few days were very difficult. My mother and sister went down to Dominican Republic without me. We couldn't afford a third ticket so I told them to just go ahead without me because they needed it. Although I held my composure on the outside, on the inside I was dying. I wanted nothing more than to go with them so I could say goodbye to her. But it wouldn't happen and I never got to say goodbye to Isiana... 

     I wish I could have had more time with you Tia. The time we did spend was always the best... You made me laugh and you made me smile as wide as I could. You were energetic, and just so passionate about me and my sister. You made me feel special when the rest of the world just kept putting me down lower and lower. I love you Isiana and I miss you terribly, but I know you are in a better place and no longer suffering. I guess this is my way of saying goodbye since I didn't get to... Goodbye Tia Isiana may you rest in peace...

This brings us to the end of Ch. 40. You never realize how fragile life is until something reminds you of it. We are not put on this earth to live here forever, so just make sure that you live life to the fullest because you never know when everything could change. This is it the beginning of the end. I will you see you all one last time at the end...