Writer's Workshop - The end of my childhood...

Over at Mama's Losin' It, Mama Kat hosts a writer's workshop where we choose one of the prompts listed and write a story/poem about that prompt.

My prompt for the day: 6.) Write about the event that was the end of your childhood

The End of my Childhood...

I don't recall all the details exactly of this time as I believe sometimes we are blessed with a form of amnesia when we go through things that are way to difficult to understand but this is how I remember it...

I was 13 years old. I had a great life and a great best friend, Christina. I loved visiting Christina's house, she lived with her dad, Bob, and her younger brother. Christina's dad was like a second dad to me. He was funny, sweet and treated me like a daughter. He always enjoyed having Christina's friends around and would tell us that he missed us as much as Christina and her brother when they had to go for weekend visits with their mom.

On one of those weekends...the phone at my house began ringing at an abnormally early hour, my mom answered and came in to hand me the phone. To this day I'm not sure who was on the other end but I do know it was a member of my best friends family to tell me that Bob, Christina's dad had been killed in a car accident overnight. I don't remember well what was said or done next but I remember thinking that this couldn't be true...I had just seen him the day before and he had jokingly asked another friend of Christina's and I to stay with him that weekend because the house would be so quiet without Christina and her brother. (I felt guilty for years that I didn't take him up on that offer because Bob would never have went out if I would have been there therefore the accident wouldn't have happened). I remember my mom driving me over to Christina's house that morning with a boxful of donuts to be with Christina and her family but I don't remember the rest of that day.

I don't remember the funeral (but I know I went) or the days surrounding it. I do remember seeing my dad more upset than I had ever seen him (Bob had been his friend) during that time. I remember the devastation I felt that not only had I just lost a man that felt like a second dad to me but that I would also be losing my best friend because she would now have to live with her mother that lived what seemed to me to be a million miles away. I remember crying and talking with Christina during that time but for the life of me I don't remember if I was successful in comforting or helping her, I sure hope so.

Christina went to live with her mom and we lost touch after a while but the memory of our friendship and her dad have stayed with me all this time. I do feel like this tragedy was the end of my childhood...the end of believing that nothing bad could ever happen to me or those around me...the end of innocence.

I just recently found Christina again (through facebook) and I hope to get to know her again.