The greatest love

FOURTEEN

Maddie

Maddie's family left at around eight in the evening. They would go to have dinner and then Jonah and Timothy would go home while Allison come back to spend the night at the hospital.

Maddie tried to work out her own thoughts alone in the hospital room. She was very relieved that her suicide attempt yesterday did not work out. She came very close to losing her family and her life. She did not actually want to die. She loved her parents and brother very much. And now she knows they really love her too. Timothy needs her to take care of him at school and at home. He likes her and could communicate well enough to her. And Maddie wanted to grow up and be an artist. She loved drawing and painting very much. She has notebooks full of realistic drawings at home.

She felt a huge burden being lifted off her at the thought of not having to go back to school. She was glad never to see anyone at her old school again. There was no one she would miss, except maybe Sally, but she knew Sally does not feel the same. She only hoped she would fit in more at the new school. The truth is, Maddie did not make friends easily. She was only ever close to Sally since first grade. She never got along with anyone else and she did not really understand other kids, the things they liked and the things they said.

Maddie dreaded secondary school even more than primary school where she knew kids were bigger and meaner. Maddie was and always has been a loner, and she knew that made her an easy target. However, Maddie decided she would be strong for the sake of her family. She could endure anything thrown at her from other people, but she could not let her mom down again. The look on her mother's face last night was truly painful to watch. She did not want to be reason for her mother's pain again.

And Maddie also remembered her ‘dream’ while she was unconscious. She knew she had been given a second chance by God. She was foolish and made a bad decision, but now she promised herself to not waste her second chance at life. She would live her life to the fullest. She would love her family hard, and she would make something of herself. She sent a prayer of thanksgiving to God and closed her eyes to sleep.