I am thankful for Rebekah’s peace. I am thankful for her glimpses of first love. I am thankful that she has weathered an adult-sized storm in six short weeks.
Two funerals in the space of three weeks.
A drug overdose: a young mother. Mother to Rebekah’s best friend. A death we foresaw, but shook our world. The best friend stays at our house the day after her mother died. Rebekah’s love for her friend permeated our home and held us up.
A suicide: a sixteen-year-old boy. Rebekah’s social media crush. She met him once. But she connected and was taken aback that he found her beautiful, even sexy. He talked to her the night he died. Rebekah’s probably the last voice he heard. And again, she loved. She offered him love. She pleaded and said “please don’t” and “I care for you.” Her love tragic, futile, maybe. But she carried him in love to his end.
The funerals are full of words. Words dwarfed by grief. Grief mingling with Rebekah’s love.
And now a first love: for my daughter, Rebekah. Her love mirrored back by a boy that holds her hand.