The Last Prayer For Grandma

I sit here in this graveyard alone. I have been alone since 26th December 2020 when my gran passed away. I don't know what she died from, my family won't tell me. I am only eleven years old, and they think that telling me will scare me. I stroke my grans headstone, wishing that I could just hug her one more time, but gran is gone, and I'll never feel her hugs, kisses or touch again. Tears well in my eyes like the sea on a dark and stormy day as I try to imagine life without gran.

Gran took care of me all my life. My mum died when I was a baby, and I never got to meet her. My mum was a single child, and gran had always wanted a second baby. However mum had to have a hysterectomy shortly after I was born as her womb got seriously infected, she died a short while afterwards so gran took me on as her foster child.

I read the first line of the headstone

In loving memory of Eliza Jane Benton.

I skip the rest as I can't take anymore, then I curl up onto the grass surrounding the grave and my tears just flood. I cry until my sides and chest hurt. I then stand and shout to the heavens.

"WHY! WHY MY GRAN. THE ONLY LADY WHO EVER LOVED ME?"

I get no reply. In between sobs, I start pulling out the grass with my hands. I want to bring her back. I cannot and will not live without her. My hands are sore, and my knuckles are bleeding. I roll over, still sobbing hard and cuddle them. It brings no solace. I then remember grans words.

"I never want to leave you. If the time comes and I have to go. Pray to the stars and I will answer your call."

I sit on my grans grave, knees up and resting my back on the gravestone. My eyes sting with all the sobbing. I wish I could believe that praying will enable me to hear my gran one more time, but I really cannot. Nothing can save her! Nothing can bring her back! I am desperate to hear her, to hug her, to talk to her, to smell her perfume one more time.

However, I need more. I need to smell the buns she baked on a Sunday night, I need to hear her telling me off, telling me to do my homework, reading with me, singing with me.

Tears pool in my eyes as memories of things I will never experience again fill my mind. I feel lonely, more lonely than I have ever felt in my life. I decide to try the prayer. I kneel on my knees with my head down, shutting my eyes tight and I pray to the stars.

Dear stars in the sky, I know you can hear this as

Grandma said that you would.

I miss my Gran dearly, and I am lonely and sad.

Grandma looked after me, and I am still growing up.

Who will bake for me? sing with me? tell me off and tell

me to go to bed now?

Please, I am begging you. Please bring back my Gran.

Suddenly there are green lights dancing over the sky. I do not understand what they are, but I am mesmerized by their beautiful brilliance filling the night sky with colour. I stand to watch the beautiful show, my sadness melting and my heart filled with joy. The lights are breathtaking and dazzling. They dance and I dance with them. Suddenly, I don't know how, but I sense that my gran is here. I can feel her hugging me and smell her perfume. At first, I think I'm hearing things as a voice calls to me through the lights that say's

"My dear boy. You are never alone. Gran is always with you. Look to the sky for the shining stars and watch the green lights. This is where you will find me, always. Grandpa will look after you, he loves you too. I will be here, in spirit; my soul in the stars and the lights forever guiding you."

Afterwards, the green lights move as I watch in amazement. They form the words:

I LOVE YOU

Then they disappear.

"Thank you!" I cry, feeling a sense of joy and happiness that I have never felt since gran died. I rush home to tell Grandpa my story. Every week when we visit Gran's grave, we look to the stars and watch out for the green lights.

The brightest star in the sky is Gran guiding us like a guardian angel, and the green lights are Gran sending a message of love and hope to me and Grandpa.

We live our lives forever in peace because we know that Gran is watching us.