Looking up my Past

 When I was 12, After a series of dancing lessons, all the kids who participated were invited to a ball.   Giles Vanlandingham asked me to the dance.  I was crazy about him.  He had dark hair and blue eyes, and I worried about my dress and what to say.  His parents picked me up, and we were so in puppy love!  We danced and got along really well, and at the end of the evening he said he would see me soon.  

A week later, he was dead from sepsis.  I never saw him again.  All of us had to get hepatis shots and we were very aware than it could happen to us.  But it didn’t.  I went to his funeral, and people knew I was his girlfriend.  I didn’t know what to think, but I know he was a wonderful guy, and I hated the focus being on me.  I was too young to be able to absorb it, though at least I remembered him for the rest of my life.  He was such a delightful guy, and he was dead so young – before he had a chance to become anyone.  My parents believed in Forgetting stuff, so I didn’t talk about it later.  I just was left to my own devices and yet, his death made a huge impression on me.

Giles- How has your life been after you died?  Are you there somewhere in the afterlife?  I don’t know, but I’ve never forgotten your young, blooming self.  

 

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