Steemit Challenge s28wk2 : Remembering Through Healing

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That night Tina stood by the kitchen window, looking at the moon resting softly on the roof of the old house that she was in. The silence in her felt so heavier than grief itself. She was holding her mother's apron in her faded hands, with the tiny sunflower points still visible. It still carried a scent that she could almost still recognise warm spices, a little soap, and something like safety.

She pressed it against her chest. _{"Mother.... I'm trying",} she whispered, her voice trembling.

A soft knock came from behind her. It was her younger brother, named Daniel, the one who never knew how to speak about feelings but always seemed to feel everything too deeply.

Gently, he said, _{"Tina, you don't have to carry everything alone with you."}

Tina didn't turn. _{"Someone has to. This house...it feels like it's falling apart".}

Daniel then stepped closer. _{"No we're falling apart. The house is just watching us do it".}

Tina then breathes. For a moment, her siblings stood in silence, holding two different versions of the same pain.

Tina finally admitted. _{"I keep hearing her voice". "Not like a haunting....more like a memory refusing to fade away."}

Daniel said with a sad smile. _{"That's because she lived loud". "Mon never did anything quietly. Not even her love for us."}

Tina then laughed gently through the years of her eyes. _{"She really didn't".}

With hesitation, Daniel gave her something small, a folded paper, yellow around the edges. _{"I found this in her drawer," said Daniel. "Mom wrote it before she got sick".*}

Tina took it carefully, as though the paper would break. Inside the paper a short message in her mom's looping handwriting:

_{"If you're reading this, it means I can't say it myself. Please don't let my absence silence the laughter in this house. Grief will knock, but don't let it stay forever. Love loudly. Forgive gently. And remember, I have never really left. I rest in the places you touch with kindness".}

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As Tina read it all, her breath broke into uneven pieces. _{"This wasn't meant for me,"} Tina said with a strained smile. _{"It's for all of us".}

Then Daniel nodded his head and said. _{"Then read it to us. Tonight."}

And for the first time since her mother's death. Tina felt a small, fragile light return, not the light of forgetting, but the light of allowing love to rise again in her family.

That same night, the family all gathered in the living room. They didn't pretend to be strong. They didn't hide their trembling voices. Tina then read the letter very loud so everyone could hear., and every word stitched back a thread they thought was lost.

As she finished reading the letter, she then looked around. The house no longer felt hollow. It felt like her mother had stepped into the next room calm but present.

In that moment, Tina then understood something her grief had hidden from her. Healing doesn't erase the absence; it teaches the heart where to find the love that stayed. And for the very first time since coming home, Tina felt ready not to move on, but to move forward.

I am inviting: @lhorgic, @zulbahri and @afzalqamar

Cc:-@dove11

_{Posted using SteemX}