Arlyn Smith

In another part of my city: resides a dear friend. And her family. I don’t personally know them. Considering she raised them; I am certain I love them. They are experiencing the tremendous loss that my family felt almost exactly twenty years ago. It’s gut wrenching. And I can only speak from my point of view. Her daughter is about the same age I was when I lost my father. What she is going through tears my heart apart. Realizing your father will never witness you graduate or get married, etc. And I need not forget her son: he is not very old, and I truly can’t even imagine his thoughts. When a possible nightmare becomes reality: it is jarring. Expected; yet when it happens: we’re not prepared. Only as much as we can be. We pray for a miracle: but sometimes it doesn’t arrive in time. I love her: and now her family. Because she has unknowingly guided me through example since I was 20. And she didn’t know. And perhaps she doesn’t know what this experience is doing for me. How it’s allowing me to see the ways in which I have healed. And she doesn’t know that I have been on this journey with her for several years. That I have always been walking with her, shoulder to shoulder.