
The first call interrupts my watching Terminator with my siblings. My brother answers and hands me the phone. I leave the room. When I return, they can’t tell I’ve had the worst news. I’m already in denial.
The second call comes on a late January afternoon. It’s my best friend and I can tell something’s wrong by the way he says hello. This time, I can’t keep it to myself. My mother, brother and sister gather round and hold me.
The third call comes early on a weekday morning. It’s my mother; my grandfather has died. This time, I’m prepared.
Oh… I can’t help but think that the first and the second calls brought sad and terrible news.. 😦
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Yep, spot on. The reason for each call was that someone dear to me had died.
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I’m so sorry for your loss, Sonya… I was hoping this would be a work of fiction. Sending hugs and love to you.
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Thanks, Annie. This is one of the very rare stories that’s all true.
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No news is good news as the saying goes. We never know when that bad phone call telling us something has happened to a loved one will be. When I was little I could always tell from the tone in my Dad’s voice when some one had died or was going to. Great story Sonya. I swear I was following you but I went to check and I wasn’t so now I will get to read all your talented work 🙂
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You know, I’d have sworn I was following you, too… Am now, though 🙂
Thank you, Amanda!
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Thank you Sonya.
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This is very well told. We don’t really know what the bad news is in the first two calls, until the third tips us off. I’m sorry it hear it’s a true story. My condolences.
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Thank you! I wanted to leave the big revelation until the end.
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It works!
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I love how you you say ‘This time, I’m prepared’. It’s so true. It’s not that death becomes normal, but once people very close to you have died, it really sinks in – that’s it, we really do all die. When you’re young, death is still a surprise. As you get older and lose more people, it becomes less so – no less hurtful, but less of a shock.
All the best, Sonya x
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Thanks, Lynn.
Also, after two people my age who died without warning, hearing that my grandfather, who was old and ill for some time, seemed a lot more appropriate. And we all knew it was coming. But hearing one of your friends died at the age of 18 is like, ‘what, that can’t be. We’re immortal.’
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I’m so sorry, Sonya – that is tragic and very unfair. Young people dying young makes no sense, does it? As you say, at least when people are old, you feel they’ve lived. Though ‘old’ is changing as I myself age. My dad was only 63 when he died – terribly young, I thought.
A very well written story x
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