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Together Again
In 2015-2016, my parents decided to get a divorce.
My mom, my brother, my sister, and I all moved to
Smyrna, Tennessee, together to start our new lives.
In October 2016, my mom was diagnosed with stage
4 colon cancer and wasn’t given that long to live.
The impact it had on our lives and our family was
immeasurable. My mom and my step-dad had a
falling out and she decided to leave and take us to live
with our grandmother that summer. Behind the
curtains, my mom and my dad were talking about the
possibility of all of us coming home. My brother and I,
at the time, had moved in already with my dad. It was
just the matter of getting my mom and my little sister
home. My dad found it within himself to forgive my
mom for everything and decided that he wanted all
of us to be together as a family again.
At this point, my mom had already lived past her
life expectancy by a couple of months. She was slowly
beginning to lose her hair, lose weight, and lose all of
her energy. We had a lot of financial troubles with
having to pay for hospital bills and tools that helped
my mom get around easier. Before we knew it,
Thanksgiving and Christmas were right around the
corner. Thanksgiving brought some family members
together that we hadn’t seen in years. Mom clearly
enjoyed it, but Thanksgiving had nothing on
Christmas! Christmas was our most cherished and
most favorite holiday. We didn’t know it at the time,
but this would be her last Christmas with us.
December 2016–the most wonderful time of the
year. Lights lit up our streets and love and laughter
filled our home. Mom’s condition slowly began to
worsen. In order for her to get around, she had to be
pushed in a wheelchair, but that didn’t stop her from
enjoying Christmas with her family. Gifts upon gifts
were crowded up under our Christmas tree to the
126 • December 2018