Personal Narrative-Baby Girl

The World got a little bit stranger and maybe a little bit brighter, at least it did in Frye Regional Hospital on July 9th, 1999. My mom was about as big around as a very large watermelon, with three bundles of joy bouncing around in her stomach as she was rolled into the delivery room where she would be cut into and come out again with a much greater responsibility. Outside in the hallway sat 4 anxious grandparents, soon to be uncles and aunts, and a handful of family-friends all awaiting these tiny newborns. At home, with its white picket fence and candy apple-red shutters, were two neatly arranged sets of pink, frilly clothes, a set of sky-blue baby boy clothes, mountains of diapers, and all the works and necessities of having babies. The doctors began to pull babies out of the womb, Baby Girl A... Baby Girl B… Baby Girl C. My dad froze there in the delivery room as his three

I lost one of these best friends before I had the chance to live a full life by her side, the youngest of the three of us was Brittany Rose. Brittany was called home to the Lord’s arms when she we were 3, nearly 4 when she slipped into our swimming pool while no one was watching and she drowned. My heart aches thinking of her and the times and memories we never got to share, I can only imagine the difference in my life had she lived, but her presence is never absent from family holidays and in every family portrait we take, unintentionally, a space is left open right where she would be. My only memory that I hold onto dearly that I can recall on my own, though it is faint, is putting a stuffed animal in her casket at her grave site as my mother walked with us, staying strong for her baby girls while bearing the loss of a child. Days will come and pass when I think of her and I can only wonder what it’ll be like to see her in heaven and for my mama, to have all her babies back with her