In Papa's Chair ✔

*Winner of the Wattpad Ambassadors Aim to Engage Contest 2021*

This short story is my submission for the Wattpad Ambassadors "Aim to Engage 2021" contest. The goal was to write a story in 500 words or less using this prompt:

New Year, the time of new beginnings, and when we leave the past behind. But what if instead of stepping into a new year, you kept entering the previous ones? Instead of moving forward, the years keep going backward.

With that prompt in mind, I decided to come up with a situation where I wouldn't mind going back in time again. The first thing that came up was when I went back to Hawaii to take care of my papa when he had Hodgkin's lymphoma. I was only eleven, and had no idea what taking care of a cancer patient entailed.

That summer ended up being the last time I got to be with Papa. I remember feeling guilty after he died, because I spent so much time worrying about him or stressing that I wasn't doing enough to help him. If I could go back and relive those moments again, I wouldn't even worry about all the technical things that had me losing sleep and just focus on being with my papa. Keeping track of vitals, making sure Papa got his meds at the right time, sanitizing everything, those things are important. But when I look back on those days, I don't wish I had spent more time reading monitors or cleaning. I wish I had spent more time sitting with Papa.