Death Story

The Aftermath…

Kara sat with her face in her arm. Tears fell onto the wooden table where she rested her head as a circle of water gathered on the dark blue shirt that she wore. This was Kara’s first grief meeting after the loss of her mother.
“I just want to know what happened, I just want to know she’s safe…but why did she do this? Was it on purpose? I’m just so confused right now I don’t know what to do or where to go…” Kara said during group sharing.
Her voice quivered and she looked as though she hadn’t slept in weeks. Her eyes were surrounded with the faded color of charcoal from exhaustion and the tears ran freely as though she hadn’t cried in months.
The grief counselor stepped in, knowing Kara was on the edge of a breakdown and tried his best to comfort the 17 year-old girl, “Things will get better. I know that seems impossible to you now, Kara, but look at everyone here. Everyone here has lost someone they love and they’re all doing okay. You don’t have to forget, darling, you never have to let go of her memory.”

In the Beginning…

Kara grew up with one sibling, a brother named Spencer. The two of them were very close growing up, but as Spencer hit his teen years he strayed in a path that Kara didn’t agree with and the two hadn’t talked since Spencer moved out of the house two years ago.
After her brother moved out, Kara’s mom, Holly started drinking heavily. Holly hid her alcoholism from everyone; staying in so she didn’t have to see friends, sneaking drinks before family dinners, and even telling her parent’s that she’d never had a sip of alcohol.
After countless nights of Holly’s husband coming home to his wife drunk, he decided to leave her. Things moved quickly as the house sold and Kara’s dad bought his own apartment which Kara move in to and left Holly with nothing.
“I hate knowing that I left my mom to live without the family she’d been with, but she wasn’t being the mother that I needed at the time.” recalls Kara.
Holly decided to move in with her parents, facing the reality that she had no one.

The Phone Call

When the phone rang in my dad’s new apartment, I knew it couldn’t be good. My parents weren’t talking at the time and no one had the house number but my mom. I answered the phone and it was my grandma. She sounded shaken up but I thought nothing of it as I handed the white-corded phone over to my dad.
“That morning was the worst morning of my life. The conversation is blurry, but I can’t get the picture of my dads face out of my mind. I’ve tried. The picture just won’t go away.”
The Story
Her Grandma found Kara’s mom the morning of September 29th lying in her bed. Holly’s parents opted to not have an autopsy, causing all of Holly’s loved ones to never truly know what happened to her.
“I think my Grandparents were in denial about her drinking and wanted to have someone to put the blame on, which ended up being my dad,” said Kara “I think it was her alcoholism but I’ll just never know. It’s just a mystery that I’m going to have to hold in my heart for the rest of my life”