A Year After
1947 Words
RAINDROPS FELL from the sky, landing on the black umbrellas that protect the people from getting wet. Under those umbrellas were the people who were mourning for the loss of the little sunshine.
One by one, the people at the event threw flowers and spoke their prayers for the soul of the late child. Irises, which were Ania's favorite, were sitting above the coffin together with the white lilies, roses, and carnations.
Slowly, the coffin was put down towards the six-foot hole before it was covered with soil.
"I'm sorry for your loss, madam," Ania's daycare teacher said her condolences to the mourning mother. "Ania is such a wonderful child. I hope she will find her peace."
Aela, who was just holding Ania's portrait while looking down at the tombstone, just nodded at the teacher. More people spoke their condolences to her while stating how good as a child Ania is.
"She helped my daughter when she was being bullied by other kids. Your child has a good heart, Aela. I'm sure God will bless her in the afterlife," a woman spoke to her while holding the hand of a little girl wearing a black dress.
The child looked up at Aela with sad eyes. "I will pray for you and Ania every night, ma'am."
Another mother spoke to Aela with a gentle voice. "I understand your pain, Aela. Don't worry. I'm sure your daughter will guide you from above," she stated before giving a white envelope to Aela. "I don't know if you will need this, but please accept it. It's just a small amount, but it's a token of gratitude to your daughter for being my son's first friend in daycare."
Almost half an hour passed since the funeral was over, and the other people already left after sending their condolences to Aela.
The only people left in the cemetery are Aela, her grandmother, and her best friend. No one made a move and they let Aela stay in front of her child's tombstone.
Aela wanted to cry, to scream, and to plead with God to bring her daughter back to life. She's been doing that for the past week, and she already lost her voice. She can't even shed a tear at her daughter's funeral.
She just hugged the picture of her daughter, crying inside and mourning quietly. This went on for several hours until the sun started to come down.
"Aela," Amelia called her granddaughter with a soft but raspy voice. "It's getting dark. Let's go home, shall we?"
"I don't want to leave Ania, nonna," she answered with a cracked and hoarse voice.
Arianne went nearer to her, with eyes full of pity and sadness. "Aela, we need to go home. You can't stay here forever," she spoke to her and gently tugged her arm. "Ania will be sad if she can see you in this situation."
Tired and not wanting to argue more, she just nodded, agreeing to their request. Before they left, Aela kneeled on the soil and kissed Ania's tombstone, her lips lingered on it for a few seconds.
After a few minutes, they arrived at Amelia's house. Arianne decided to stay for the night to accompany her friend. They just ate a little bit for dinner before calling it a day.
"Aela, I know you're not okay. But don't forget that I'm here, okay?" she spoke to her friend who is now lying down on the bed while hugging Ania's favorite penguin toy.
The mother didn't speak any words. She just closed her eyes before sniffing the stuffed toy, engraving her child's scent on her lungs.
Arianne left her friend's room without making any noise. Before she could enter the guest room, an old woman's voice called her.
"Arianne," the old woman spoke while motioning the lady to come near to her.
"Do you need anything, grandma?" she asked when they entered her bedroom. Amelia told her to sit on the couch just beside the bed.
"I discovered something, but I don't want my granddaughter to hear it. For now," Amelia spoke before showing the screen of her tablet to Arianne.
Arianne's eyebrows immediately met each other. "What the hell is this?" she asked while scrolling through the photos shown to her.
"This bastard man has the guts to go overseas for a vacation on the day of his own daughter's funeral," Amelia clenched her fist before taking a deep breath to calm herself.
"What a prick," Arianne spoke before reacting in an angry reaction to Ignacio's social media posts. "And he already made his mistress his fiance. Not shocking."
Amelia rolled her eyes. "He had been boasting about his seemingly new life on social media. He even made captions to make it look like my granddaughter is the villain."
"Don't worry, grandma," Arianne grabbed her phone and opened her accounts. "I got this."
She shared Ignacio's post and typed quickly on her phone, creating words that would humiliate that man. After she hit the button, she knew that she created chaos.
"What did you do?" Amelia asked when she saw Arianne smiling after turning off her phone.
"Well, I just shared that bastard's post," she answered. "And I revealed the truth."
"With his influence, he can easily put your post down," the old woman responded, not impressed by Arianne's actions.
"Of course, I knew about that, nonna," she opened her phone again and showed the contents to Amelia. "But I have millions of followers. Thousands of them can see my shared post in just a few seconds. He can take down my post, but he can't take down thousands of it."
Her phone vibrated repeatedly and Arianne clicked on the notification. "Oh look! It already has one thousand reactions," she exclaimed. "And more angry reactions were added to Ignacio's post. Let's how he will handle it."
Ignacio's issue became a huge topic in the online platforms, and the man needed to spend millions of euros just to take down every post and comment that was against him and Sera.
It affected his company so much that the stock exchange decreased in such a short span of time. However, his money solved everything in just a few weeks. Also, he was able to take down Arianne's account, which the latter didn't mind, and just created a new one.
MORE THAN A YEAR PASSED SO QUICKLY, and now, Aela is living alone in their house. Just eight months after Ania's death, Amelia followed. The cause of her death is natural. She was already old and weak, and Amelia wasn't even afraid of it.
Her last wish to Aela is to live happily and live the wishes of her daughter, to which Aela happily agrees.
For the past year, Aela forgot the pain of the past and focused on the present and future. She started creating big promotions for their museum and spent a quarter of the money that Amelia left to improve the museum.
It started booming and more people visited the museum. It became viral on online platforms, and Aela was able to buy new things for the business, such as original paintings and ancient jewelry.
"Wow, we're fully booked for the next three months," Arianne spoke while looking at the records. "Your marketing strategy is a success, Aela!"
The woman smiled at her best friends before closing her laptop. "It's because of your help. Your account has several reaches. Without it, my strategy wouldn't even work."
"You're giving me so much praise," Arainne touched her red cheeks. "I'll make more videos not just about the museum, but also about your foundation!"
"Will you go with me on Saturday?" Aela asked. "We will celebrate the first anniversary of the foundation."
Arianne nodded. "Of course! I'm so excited to meet the kids!"
Saturday came, and the staff of the foundation was very busy catering to the participants of the foundation. Children stayed inside their rooms, only separated by a glass window so that they could see what was happening in the lobby.
"And today, let's all welcome the founder of the Assisting Needs of Individuals Affected by TB or ANIA Foundation, Ms. Mykhaela Coppola!"
The visitors, which were composed of the donors, parents, and affected kids, gave her a round of applause as Aela walked up to the stage.
"First of all, I want to thank everyone who is here to celebrate this milestone of our foundation. Without you, we wouldn't have gone this far," she started her speech while looking around at the people inside.
"A year ago, I lost my child because of tuberculosis. It was so sudden, and it broke me completely. To show my lasting love for my daughter, I built this foundation in hopes that no other child would experience what happened to my daughter. I don't want any more parents to cry and be destroyed because they lost their daughter or son to a disease," she swallowed the lump in her throat as she tried not to cry.
"In just one year, we were able to help more than 70 children affected by tuberculosis, wherein almost 50 of them already recovered. Until now, our foundation has been giving support to these children and their families by giving them their isolation room with complete machinery. We also provided nutritious foods and needed medicine for them, as well as supporting their family financially."
"I would like to thank the sponsors and donors of this foundation. Without your help, we would not be able to cater to the needs of these people. Thank you so much," Aela bowed a little bit to show her gratitude. "Let's all wish for more success so that we can help more children so that we can give them a good future."
Her speech ended and people gave her loud claps. After going down from the stage, she shook hands with the visitors who commended her good acts.
Afterward, she talked to the children one by one. Even if they were separated by a glass window, Aela and the children were still excited to talk to each other.
Stories of hope and dreams can be heard from the children. How they want to grow up and finish their studies so that they can give back to their family and the foundation.
After more hours, finally, Aela is talking to the last child. This child became close to her, due to her having some similarities to her late child. Although she's years older than Ania, the resemblance is still noticeable.
"Mary, did you enjoy this day?" she asked the child, which the latter answered with a nod.
"I ate good food today, Ms. Coppola. Thank you so much!" she exclaimed while her hand was touching the glass.
Aela smiled sweetly at her. "Just a few weeks, and you'll be tested again. Let's pray that it will be negative this time, okay?"
"I will pray every day Ms. Coppola. I will be healthy again so I can go back home. I miss sleeping with Mommy," the child responded.
Aela put her fingers on her lips before landing it on the glass as if she were sending a kiss to the child. After a few moments, the event already ended.
Arianne was left in the foundation to help the staff, while Aela went home immediately because of an exhaustion.
The moment she arrived at her house, the maid greeted her with a glossy envelope in her hand.
"Madam, a representative of Mr. Rafael Saccone sent this letter," the maid spoke.
Aela received the envelope on her hand before opening it. The first words on the invitation read: You are invited in Soleira's Grand Opening!
- Writer
