Steemit Challenge -s28wk2 : Remembering Through Healing

But something shifted one early evening.

Tina was selecting through an old drawer in her mother’s room;a place she hadn’t dared to lay a finger on since she moved back. Dust rose like flying mist as she pulled out envelopes, receipts, tiny forgotten souvenirs… and then a small notebook slipped out and fell open at her feet.

It was her mother’s handwriting.

Tina froze.

The pages weren’t a diary exactly;more like scattered notes, reminders;as if they were little paragraphs of thoughts her mother must have scribbled in quiet moments. At first, the words were simple: grocery lists, reminders to call relatives, recipes to try, places to visit as well...

Then she turned a page… and her breath caught.

Tina worries too much. She hides it with anger sometimes, but she is actually stronger than how she thinks she is, I hope she sees that.
I wish she knew I understood her even whenever she tried to hide her emotions.

Tina sat on the floor, the late sun glowing warm against her back. Her hands trembled as she read on.

There were entries about their arguments;written calmly, sometimes even with a touch of humor.

We argued again and she slammed the door angrily,One day she will realize that her fire is part of her strength, not a flaw. I hope I am still here to see it as she use that fire to strengthen her self.

A sentence, written faintly as if her mother had been tired, stopped her completely:

"If anything happens to me, I want her to keep living loudly ;Not carefully but Loudly. She really deserve a fulfilling life;one with thrilling events.."

Tina pressed the notebook to her chest,as she pour out her emotions and for the first time in months, the tears that came didn’t feel like that of pain. They felt warm;like something inside her finally relaxed.

That night, the house was silent as usual, but it feels like that to her. It was as if she could feel her mother sitting by the window, humming that tune she usually hummed to her self .

The pain of losing mom was still lingering around; it could still be there as a painful moment; but as well as understandable.

The next morning, Tina kept the notebook on the dining table where everyone could notice it. She didn’t say a word wanting them to realize it them selves. She didn’t need to.

Her sister found it first, and her father stood behind her. None of them spoke, but she watched their expressions shift—surprise, sadness, and then that same quiet warmth she had felt.

It wasn’t exactly healing. Not yet. But it was something like a beginning.

Later, Tina stepped outside, feeling the cool air around her. The sky was starry; so fabulous ;more than she remembered. She whispered, not sure if anyone was listening:

“I’m trying...Mom.”

And somewhere inside her, in that space where memory and hope meet, she felt something she hadn’t felt in a long time;not closure, not exactly, but a small, steady feeling certainty:

This wasn’t an ending.

It was the first chapter of something new.

THE END

I invite @us-andrew,@sampson01 and blissful01 to participate in this creative contest

Thanks...