I Wish It Were a Dream

Imagine one day waking up and having a loved one’s memory of you erased in the blink of an eye. It was a bright and sunny Friday morning in the month of May. She was just a small town ordinary freshman girl getting ready for a casual day of school. When suddenly she heard the most horrific, indescribable sound she had ever heard. In shock, she waited patiently hoping; praying for it to be just her mother yelling at her older brother for his TV being too loud.

Suddenly she heard her father scream “Babe.. Babe… BABE!!” Hastily her father screamed to her brother to call 911. She flew down the stairs terrified to see what the commotion was about. Her father screamed “BABE… WAKE UP… Wake up! Breathe!”

Tears streaming down her face, she frantically tried to comprehend what was going on. She saw her mother’s limp body becoming stiff lying on the bed, her father with tear-filled eyes panicked trying to bring her back to consciousness.

What felt like hours passed and a police officer was banging on the front door, she rushed him to her mother’s bedroom too much in tears to speak; she just showed him the way. He rushed to her mother's bedside telling her father to please step aside. He flashed his penlight in her eyes. He sympathetically suggested to her father to relax. Moments later the EMT’s rushed through the front door. Her mother was now lying there in a lethargic state. The EMT’s asked her what her name was, She did not say a word. Her father spoke and said “Amanda, her name is Amanda.” The EMT repeated to her mother Amanda, “What is your full name?” She spoke quietly and relayed her maiden name from seventeen years past. The EMT’s strapped her to the stretcher and brought her out of the front door. The girl rushed to call her best friend whose house she was supposed to go to later that evening and told her she was not going to be able to make it because her mother was heading to the emergency room because she had stopped breathing. Without thinking, she quickly hung up the phone and got ready to run outside. Just then, unexpectedly her mother walked through the front door, grabbed a cigarette and walked up the stairs. Incoherently her mother asked her the time with a very puzzled look in her eyes. She replied with “7:15”. Her mother shockingly replied with, “ Holy it’s 7 pm!” Confused, she replied with, “No? 7:15 am.” Her mother shrugged it off and as she walked past her. She did a double take, looked her in the eyes and very softly spoke, “ Who are you?” When she walked down the hallway she asked herself why the girl was in her home. Now in a silent panic the girl started to cry uncontrollably. In a shocked state she looked her brother in the eyes and said, “Let’s go to school.”

Walking through the halls with all the stares and quiet whispers, she felt as though everyone already knew. Holding back tears, she kept to herself all day; she tried to focus on school work and just get through the day. The texts from her mother stopped at noon. She knew something was terribly wrong. In that moment, she knew. Her brother and she quickly rushed home. They found the house in shambles and sped to the emergency room. There, her mother rested for three days. She had a total of seven seizures in three days. It took her three days to regain recognition of who her youngest child even was. Three days later was Mother’s Day. Those three days were the most terrifying days of the girl’s life. That Mother’s Day she learned the true meaning of Mother's Day. During those three days she learned the true value of life.