The sirens ring through the afternoon breeze. Oh no! They’ve stopped at my house. My front door is open. Neighbors are crowding around watching. Mommy, daddy you okay? That’s the first thought that goes through my seven year old mind. Next, come the tears hot and salty, like a river of endless water. Why am I crying? I don’t know. But the anxiousness and fear inside me, is eating me alive.

I feel like I’ve fallen into a dark and pitiful dream. Why, why me, why, why, why? I just long to escape this unthinkable nightmare. To either go back in time or to have someone comfort me by lying and tell me it will all be over soon. I am young, that I know and as much as I try to stay strong and calm, I can’t. My throat keeps on closing up, my heart doesn’t seem to be able to slow down, and my thoughts keep thinking of the worse possible scenarios.

I can’t escape what is to come, I can only wait and think. Be it hours or days I can only keep on waiting and thinking. Waiting and thinking. Thinking and waiting. That is all.

Daddy why was no one helping you? If I were here would this not have happened? If I was older could I have prevented this? I say it to no one, anyone, myself, aloud and in my head as I wait for the call that will alter my life either for the better or for the worse.

And the waiting and thinking comes to an end.

As the phone ring it brings happiness, relief, and a new perspective of how your life can change in a matter of seconds. The relief that washes over me is so great I cry. I cry for joy. I cry for happiness. I cry because that is all I can do. I don’t think about the misery I just endure, I think about the beauty of having one more day.

I am blessed. I have been granted a second chance to cherish deeply and carefully every moment, memory, and laughter with my dad. I have been given one more day to love him. One more day to be with him. One more day to care for him. One more day to hear his voice. One more day to be his daughter. And finally, one more day to have the man I love be my daddy.

Like Bryce Courtenay once said, “Sometimes the slightest things change the direction of our lives, the merest breath of a circumstance, a random moment that connects like a meteorite striking the Earth. Lives have swiveled and changed direction on the strength of a chance remark.”