Hope never imagined that life could be so cruel as to steal her final chance to say goodbye.
Her father, the man who had been a shadow in the background of her childhood—flawed and broken by his own demons—was gone. Suddenly, silently, without warning.
She had wanted, for so long, just one moment to speak with him. To tell him she forgave him for the pain, to tell him she loved him despite everything, to say thank you for the times he tried. But now, those words were trapped in a silence that no one could break.
The call came early in the morning.
“Your father has passed,” the voice on the phone said softly, almost too quietly to be real.
Hope sat frozen. Her heart stopped. Her breath caught.
She hadn’t been there.
She hadn’t held his hand.
She hadn’t whispered comfort.
She hadn’t said goodbye.
The weight of it crashed over her like a storm. She felt the loneliness spread, deeper and darker than ever before. Because in losing him, she lost a piece of her own history—no matter how painful it was.
For days, Hope wandered through the motions. There was funeral paperwork to sign, distant relatives to meet, and conversations filled with awkward condolences. But inside, she was empty. Like a house stripped bare, cold and hollow.
No one asked how she was.
No one saw the cracks in her voice.
No one noticed the way her eyes searched for comfort that wasn’t there.
Her mother’s health began to fail soon after, a cruel echo of the loss she had just endured. When her mother slipped into a coma, Hope was forced to watch helplessly as the woman who had once been her entire world faded away behind glass walls and machines.
COVID restrictions meant visits were brief and infrequent.
Each time she left the hospital, Hope felt as though a part of her was being left behind. And when the final call came—her mother had died—Hope was alone once more.
No goodbye.
No last words.
Only silence.
The weight of loss bore down on her shoulders like an unbearable burden. But she carried it anyway.
Because she had no choice.
Hope was alone in the world now.
Truly alone.
But still, somehow, she kept breathing.