Finding Mr. Right

Chapter 2

Graduation came and went in a blink of an eye. I was getting ready for college life by shopping for all the essential things I needed. My dorm room would be pretty big and my roommate was super nice. We had been texting back and forth about things we were getting for our rooms so we made sure not to match each other. We had such similar style that we were a perfect fit for one another. She would send me pictures of what she bought and I would do the same. We both loved what the other had gotten and couldn't wait to put it all together.

Rachel was going to cosmetology school in a neighboring city close to ours. She wanted to do hair and makeup for the stars. She had plans of moving to Hollywood once she was done. As driven as she was I knew she could do it. I on the other hand didn't know what I wanted to do with my life just yet. Other than exploring the whole world. Each and every corner if I could. But that was just a dream. I had enrolled in some basic classes and I hadn't settled on a major yet. My mom said that I should not be so hard on myself and just enjoy this time to explore all the different career paths out there. She always made me feel so much better about everything. I needed that encouragement because without it I was extremely hesitant about going to college at all.

Having an education was very important to my mom. She didn't want me to depend on a man to take care of me. She had me and my sister and then went back to nursing school. It was really hard for her to juggle home and school but you would never know just how tired she was because she made it seem effortless. My mom and dad had a rock solid marriage but her parents were not so loving. Her mom was a single mother and struggle to take care of my mom and her older brother. That is why she wanted me and Elizabeth to be independent and take care of ourselves. Both of my parents worked really hard for what they had and that made me want to be just like them. When I felt really stressed I like to hang out with my dad at his auto repair shop. Helping him work on the cars calmed me and helped me think things through. It was such a great stress reliever.

I decided to go hang out with my dad since I had been so stressed about the big move and all the changes. His shop was like my second home. The guys around there saw me as a daughter since they watched me pretty much grown up in front of their eyes. They were like family to us and we spend a lot of summers all getting together for BBQs, weddings, or birthdays. It was nice to have such a large extended work family who loved and supported me.

I was helping dad get everything put up for the night when he suddenly got a phone call. He answers the phone and all of a sudden his face turned white and he dropped the phone and fell to his knees. I rushed to help him up but he wouldn't budge. I picked up the phone and said, "Hello." The news I heard next would forever change my life. It was police officer Wiggins letting us know that my mother had been in a really bad accident when coming home from work and died at the scene. He she had spoken of seeing an angel when they got there and when they tried to get her out of the car she stopped breathing. Her injuries were internal and when you saw her from the outside she only had a few minor scrapes but her inside had taken a really beating. He kept saying how sorry he was and that he thought that she would make it. Officer Wiggins was a really close friend of the family so he wanted to make sure he told us about my mom first. He said someone would need to come and identify the body. I knew I would have to be the one to take care of it because my dad was in no shape to take on such a task with the state he was in.

I didn't know how to feel or what to say to my dad. So I just sat on the floor beside of him and hugged him really tightly as the tears started to flow down my cheeks. What did this mean for our family? My mom was the one who took care of everything and everyone. She was our light and our whole world. I would no longer hear her sweet laugh or see her beautiful smile light up a room. She was they glue that held this family together and without her I feared that it would crack and break apart. I refused to let that happen. I would need to be the glue for my family now. I would keep us together.

Officer Wiggins came by the shop to check on us to see if we needed a ride home and I told him that would be great if he would do that for us. Neither me nor my dad were in any kind of state to drive home. I didn't know how we were going to tell Elizabeth. I asked officer Wiggins if he would stay and help us break the news to her. He was more than happy to help us out with such a difficult task.

When we arrived home we all sat in the living room as officer Wiggins told Elizabeth about what had happened to mom. She started to cry and me and dad embraced her in a big family hug. Life was never going to be the same again. We lost our mom and my dad lost his soul mate. I wasn't sure what this meant for our future. But I did know I needed to be there for my dad and sister. Even if that meant forgoing college to stay and help keep things as normal as possible for the both of them. I needed them as much as they needed me.

I arrived at the hospital the next day to identify my moms body. Officer Wiggins had driven me over there and took me to her. She was laying on a metal table with a sheet over her. I walked over to the table and she looked so cold. I just shook my head yes and after that I couldn't control my emotions. Officer Wiggins hugged me and helped me out of the room. She looked so peaceful laying there. Other than a few scratches on her face she looked perfectly normal. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to her. I still needed her to help me figure things out in my life. This wasn't fair. Why did it have to be her? God why did you have to take her from me now? She had so much more living to do. Officer Wiggins took me back home and helped me arrange cremation services for her. She always wanted to be cremated and I would honor her wishes. This nightmare never felt like it was going to end. Life was a rough for the first couple of months but little by little it turned to a new normal. Dad has a business to run and that seemed to occupy his time and helped him cope with the loss of mom. He knew he had his work family and they needed him also.

*** Poor Katherine and her family. She had given up everything to take care of them. Do you think she was right to leave college life behind? ***