Lilly Ann- 16 Years

Chapter One- Don't Tell Her Yet...

    For as long as I can remember I’ve lived in this three bedroom, two bathroom vintage brick house. It’s where I said “bubba” for the first time. If this house could talk, it would have many stories to tell. From highschool boyfriends to late night game nights. The house wasn’t easy to find considering it’s located in a close knit neighborhood in the outskirts of town behind a village of trees.

The neighborhood was amazing, especially when it came to taking care of one another. Cameron lived in the house on the right , Joel and Mrs. Martha on the left. There were many other neighbors but over time their names slipped my mind. My greatest memories usually involved one or more of the neighbors. When I look back I remember the neighborhood cookouts and holiday gatherings. We always had a really good time. The Brooks family usually brought a casserole and a few drinks. Mrs. Martha was in charge of the desserts, everyone on the street agreed she was the best baker.

One person that almost everybody liked was my father. My father was a hardworking man, very stern and taught me so much. He tried to teach my brother and I many good traits such as respect, responsibility and honesty. Besides my brother, dad is the strongest man I know. The day we lost dad was so shocking and unbelievable.

It felt like a nightmare, I am still waiting on someone to wake me up from this awful reality. We lost him on February 4, 2016. The death of our father pushed us to the real world faster than most kids ever knew. My brother had just began his adulthood but didn’t waste time making stupid mistakes. He stepped up and took care of not only himself but me, his little sister.

I tried to tell myself that dad went peacefully but I knew didn’t. We were told that he was shot multiple times in the chest. It was a wanted sniper that took my  father and many others down that dreadful day. Dad was a special ops officer for the FBI. He was rarely home but he kept in contact when he could.

We were expecting him home within the next week. Dad and his team was on a top secret undercover mission that went totally wrong. Cole and I had a surprise supper and small party planned for dad celebrating his twentieth year and coming home. There was suspicions that someone tipped off the main suspect of their presence. Dad had worked for the task force for the last twenty years.

Joel was the person who told Cole and I about our father. It wasn’t out of the ordinary that Joel was at the house when we got home from school. Dad and Joel treated each other as brothers, they had a one of a kind friendship. That afternoon we lost dad the neighborhood showed us how much they cared about us. Mrs. Martha and Joel let us stay them that night. Cameron came and hung out with us after he heard the news. The following morning Cameron, Joel and Cole went to the funeral home to make arrangements. I stayed with Mrs. Martha and helped her with the daily house chores.

This is what the insert in the local paper said about my father’s passing. We told them to keep it simple because the people that were attending the funeral knew dad’s back story and dad himself. Cole and I decided that the whole town didn’t need to know everything.

“Dale Aaron Brooks (35) of Knoxville, Tennessee. Born April 7, 1971. Died Febuary 4, 2016. He left behind many friends and two amazing kids, Lilly Brooks (10) and Cole Brooks (19). He was laid to rest on Febuary 5th, 2016.”  

After the funeral Joel and Martha would check on us as they could. Cameron wasn’t only a neighbor he was Cole’s best friend. Cameron stayed with us to keep us company. This was the year he felt and became more than just a friend or neighbor he was family.

Cole became my role model, I looked up to him more than anybody knew. We had always been close but we grew even closer after dad passed away. Part of it being that all we had had left were each other. Cole Andrew Brooks was the name of my amazing, strong and patient brother. I followed him everywhere when there wasn’t anywhere else to be such as, school and eventually work.