It was her | h.s

13

Darcy Smith

My beautiful baby girl is out in the big wide world. I'm here by myself. And I'd be lying to myself if I said I didn't feel lonely. But I was so beyond proud of her, everything good she got, she deserved.

I'm sat on my bed just looking at the pictures of her and charley. She never spoke of her often, but deep down I new she misses her. I do too.

They were best friends for ages. Her mum, Sarah, was like a sister to me. The pictures of the girls just brought me back to the time that me and Sarah were downstairs and we could hear them giggling. This was when they were about 7 years old. We went upstairs to go have a look and it turns out Raelynn had got hold of my makeup purse and they were putting it all over each other's faces.

Me and Charleys mum couldn't not laugh. They looked a mess so I snapped a picture.

That picture was on Raelynns wall. All the pictures she has on her wall tells a different story. I was just lucky enough to be part of it.

My favourite picture of the girls was where they're both balancing on a log. That day wasn't long before charley went missing. It was the day me and Sarah took the girls for a beach photoshoot. It was on the bucket list they both made together.

I couldn't help but cry as I looked at all these pictures. In each one my daughter gets older and more mature. She's now halfway across the world pursuing her dreams and I couldn't be more proud.

// this was a short but sweet chapter. Just thought we should check back in with Darcy you know? It's sweet how close she was with charley too.