Lucy's Final Wish

I didn't want to go to school.

I was sitting on my bed, clutching my teddy bear. Darkness was the monster that dominated my mind, and it had drained every single little bit of life I had left in me.

"Your Grandma passed away this morning," my Mummy had told me, just before I was going to school.

I was looking forward to school, because I had a dancing class today. It was the start of our yearly dancing competitions, and as usual I had jumped out of bed excitedly, and prepared my little pink dancing case, with my ballet clothes and little pink ballet slippers. I had just snapped the case shut, and I was beaming before Mummy had come into my room.

"Mummy, what do you mean my Grandma has passed away? Did she go to heaven?" I asked.

I didn't understand death.

I was only seven years old.

I had been learning about something called heaven at school.

"It means you have to be good, because only good people go to heaven," my teacher had told me.

"How do they get there?" I asked, only the other day.

My teacher told me that heaven was a place where God and Jesus made the poorly better again, and gave them a better life.

She wouldn't tell me how people got there.

Mummy started crying, and I couldn't understand why.

I gave her a big cuddle, and I said,

"You'll see her again, when Jesus has made her better, Mummy."

Mummy just smiled and hugged me back.

Grandma had her funeral a week later. I did not know what a funeral was, and mummy told me I was not allowed to go, because they were not nice places for little girls like me.

"Give Grandma a big cuddle, and say goodbye for me, Mummy. Tell her that I will see her again, when she is well," I told her.

My heart sunk on that statement, and I burst into tears.

"I won't see Grandma again, will I Mummy?" I asked.

Mummy shook her head, and started to cry.

All I could do was hug her, and I cried too.

I hadn't been to school for four weeks after Grandma's funeral. I spent all of my time sitting in my bedroom, playing with the little musical jewellery box that my Grandma had bought me last Christmas.

The box was very quaint. It was only small, and it was very delicate. It had a beautiful white heart, with purple edging; and a ballerina sat on top. When you opened it there was a ballerina inside that would play beautiful lullabies.

I touched it, feeling the grooves that decorated the heart, and feeling the smooth, shape of the beautiful ballerina that was poised for dancing on top of it.

I wasn't my usual self. I didn't want to dance or sing.

What was the point, if the sun had permanently gone down on me?

I heard Mummy come through the door. She had mascara running down her face, and I knew that she had been crying.

I felt helpless. As a small child, I did not understand death very well; but I knew deep down that Grandma wasn't coming back.

I gave her a big hug again, and she wrapped her arms tight around me.

Between sobs, she said, "I love you."

All I could do was hold her close.

I suddenly felt a strong pull to go to my room. I had a strange feeling that I had left something very important in that room, but I couldn't understand what. I ran back to my room anyway, just to double check that I didn't need to bring anything downstairs.

I heard a little voice that sounded like Grandma, telling me to open the Jewellery box, so I did, and there was a note inside that said.

"Live your life. You only get one."

It was signed by Grandma.

I didn't believe in ghosts, but I did believe that people could hear me in heaven. Someone had told me that when people go to heaven, God chooses Guardian Angels to protect their loved ones on earth.

I felt another pull, this time towards my little case that had my dancing clothes and ballet slippers in it.

I suddenly pulled them out, and put them on before going downstairs.

Mummy drove me to the school, and I remembered,

I had a dancing competition tonight.

"You must do this tonight, Lucy," Mummy told me firmly.

She was very straight about it with me, but she did not tell me why I had to do it.

We headed inside, and I was first on stage.

I felt a sudden pull, and it guided me into a very strong pirouette, and I felt someone guide my toes as I pointed them. I spun with grace, and floated back kicks perfectly with my legs, and ended with a graceful split and bowed down to finish.

The whole school clapped.

"Miss Lucy Diamond; that was the best performance we have ever seen," my dancing teacher, Mrs Rouge quipped.

For the first time in my life, I won the gold award for my dance. I was beaming.

Then I came of stage, and I saw what I was not supposed to see.

My sister Rosie who was only five years old had been taken into hospital after having a fit. She had been unwell for a long time, and she had to use a wheelchair, but normally she was a bright, healthy, young girl who lived life to the full.

She had been so desperate to see me dance for a long time, but this was the only chance she ever got to see me.

I thought back to my Grandma's warning as I burst into tears.

That was my last call, to let my sister have her dying wish.

Sadly, she passed way the day after the show, though I was glad that I was able to give her wish, and not fail her.

The next day, I sat in my room, and I wrote a little note:

'Lucy's final wish;

Live your life,

You only get one.'

I stuck the note inside my Jewellery box, so that I could remember the words my Grandma always told me, and I hung a picture of Lucy directly above the Jewellery box.