The Spirit of Her

I knew there was something special about this child, this little human, from the moment I saw her. She had a twinkle in her blue eyes that hinted to something more, something deeper. Older. Wiser. I felt like I knew her, like I'd known her my whole life.

Catching the eye of this child in the backseat of a station wagon as we were stuck in a traffic jam, I felt something inside me break. What it was, I didn't know, but the sight of this child brought about a storm of tears that could drown Death Vally. I sat there in my car, caught up in grief I didn't understand.

Then it hit me. The whisper of a voice I hadn't heard in years. Just a simple sentence, "Girl, stop that crying...." as faint as the wind on a day with nothing but a blue sky. I didn't believe in things like this, but maybe it was true. Maybe souls DO come back. Maybe her soul came back into the body of that little girl.

Later, as I was sitting in a local deli, eating my lunch of soup and a sandwich, I felt a familiar presence. I looked up and there was the same little girl, just a few seats away. Instantly, tears sprang to my eyes. The little girl looked at me and smiled, simply shaking her head as if to tell me to not cry.

I looked away, opting to watch the snow fall outside. I rummaged in my purse for a tissue, knowing that I was being foolish, but not caring one single bit. I missed her, with her soft yet firm voice, the hint of her perfume, the quaintness she had about her. Her birthday was coming up soon, on Christmas Eve. She'd have been 94.

You would think that, after 23 years of missing her, the pain would go away, but it hasn't. She didn't get to meet her great-grandchildren. She would have been so supportive of them. She'd have been at every game, booing every loss, cheering every score. My kids would have gotten to experience the best back rubs ever, as she hummed hymnals from the 30s.

The bell above the door rang, pulling me from my daze. I glanced up and saw that the little girl had gone. My heart splintered once again. But as the pain came, so did the feeling of arms wrapped around me in a hug, along with the faint whisper of a simple, yet comforting phrase.

"I love and miss you too...."

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

 

The words I got were purse ~ blue sky ~ sandwich ~ traffic jam ~ score ~ caught and they were submitted by my darling friend Tamara from Confessions of a part timeworking mom. Thank you for the words. I hope I did you proud!

 

Now please go see what my awesomely creative friends did with their words by following the links below! 

 

Baking In A Tornado                                     

Spatulas on Parade                          

Sparkly Poetic Weirdo                                 

Southern Belle Charm                        

Rena’s World                                    

Dinosaur Superhero Mommy                         

The Bergham Chronicles              

Eileen’s Perpetually Busy             

Never Ever Give Up Hope                         

Someone Else’s Genius                    

Confessions of a part time working mom                  

Climaxed