The Love of My Life

8/18/2015

Dear parents:

Her name was Heaven Harris. You probably knew her some time when we were kids. She was a young girl. I would say she was, at most, twenty years old at that time. Beautiful, tan skin; tight, curly hair; majestic, olive green eyes, and a bright smile that could make you fall in love instantly. Back in 1985, we were dancing to "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham! I had just pulled together my courage to invite the most wanted woman in town. She was the new gem that everybody drooled for, but I already knew her like the back of my hand, since we had met each other back in Kansas when we were really young. There I found myself. Finally dancing with Heaven on the floors of the crowded and loud discotheque in New York. She was looking charming, as per usual. The night was young and all for ourselves. Little did I know, it was the beginning of the end.

The ground was shaking. All I could hear were the screams of the desperate men and women, praying and begging for their lives. People started to run and, as they did, they failed to escape the place that was coming down right above them. The rough earthquake stopped and everything was a mess. The disco was destroyed, the people were harmed, the big cloud of dust was affecting our lungs, causing loud, death-like coughs. As for me and Heaven, we just stood in a corner, hugging and comforting mutually.

She just could not move, and neither could I. The only thing left in that place was the big disco ball hanging from the ceiling. It was fortunate because it's made of mirrors and crystals, which could really harm us if it crashed.

Suddenly, we heard water running. Our hearts completely stopped for a second. It took me that one second to grab Heaven's hand and just run. We stood on a tall table. The water burst in, breaking the windows left unbroken by the earthquake. People left inside started swimming and quickly drowning as the water level came up. Heaven was not moving. She was shocked and paralyzed. I grabbed her arm and swam out of the building. She was breathing in the water and she didn't have much time left to live. I was able to swim past all the dead bodies and broken objects. I got both of us out and started going up to reach the surface out of the building. Heaven reacted. Muffled screams and urge for air.

Already in the surface reaching for oxygen, I caressed her cheek. I have been in love with this girl since I met her back in the summer of 69, when she was just an innocent four-year-old little girl. Even though I was ten years old, I could see something in her. She was the only one who always believed in me. The only one who was there for me as we grew when everyone had left me behind. She was finally in my arms and I did not plan on letting her go by any chance.

As we started looking around for a big object to climb up to, she just cried. It was hell. I could not stand listening to the love of my life being taken away by fear and desperation. I noticed a big piece of wood just floating around and I grabbed it, pushed Heaven up and she helped me up. It was just me and her. We did not know about anybody else other than ourselves and each other. For all I can remember, most of the time we were on that piece of wood she was panicking and all I thought about was comforting her. I needed her to be fine.

A few years later (about five), this was just a memory. It was her and I. We fell in love, got married, moved to Scotland, and were already expecting a little girl, who is now a grown woman and lives happily with her husband in their little apartment.

Setting aside the story of how I met Heaven Harris because I might not know you two that well, but I know that you two should be old (if not dead) and don't like reading a lot, today is one of the worst days of my life. I know I haven't been the good son you deserved and I learned this the hard way by raising my own child. I regret every bad decision I ever made, not to mention I ran away to New York without notice when I was 18. I was a reckless teenager, and I never had the courage to apologize until now at age 56.

Right now, I'm going through severe depression. Why? The love of my life has passed away from cancer. The worst part is that there was really nothing I could do to save her this time, even if I saw her departure coming. There was no swimming out to the surface or a big piece of wood floating that could save her from death and me from perdition. This is my last letter. I cannot live one more day knowing that everything is gone. Now I understand. I don't regret a single moment I spent with her because it was all worth my existence, my purpose. Everything I ever longed for. She was the only thing I wouldn't change in my life. Her memory still wanders around my head at night as if her spirit was still walking around the halls of our home. I am sitting on our favorite couch, where we spent hours hugged looking at the fire listening to our favorite song: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. Wherever she is, I know she is better. She is probably living what I lived with her all the years we had...

Heaven Harris, wake me up before you go.

-Your son, Stevie.