The other day, my mother left home as she did every morning. Shed texted me, asking if Id had breakfast. I replied, Yes, well talk later, and carried on with my tasks. She wasnt ill, she hadnt been in hospital, there was no anxiety, no farewell. Just an ordinary day. One of those days you think wont change a thing.
At four oclock in the afternoon, an unknown number rang. It was our neighbour, Mrs. Whitmore. She said, Your mothers had an accident. I asked where she was, and Mrs. Whitmore told me which clinic. I rushed there at once. They told me shed collapsed in the street, struck her head, and there was nothing they could do. Just like that no drama, no final words.
There was no last sentence. No embrace. No time to say anything. I stood staring at a white wall while the staff explained papers and signatures and procedures. I phoned my brothers, my voice trembling, and managed to say the hardest words Id ever spoken: Mums gone.
But the true blow came later, when I entered her house alone to collect her belongings. I opened the wardrobe: her clothes were still hanging, waiting to be washed. Her sandals sat by the door; her purse draped behind the chair; shopping half tucked away. Everything had frozen at the exact moment life had stopped.
I picked up one of her blouses to put in a bag, catching the faint scent of her favourite soap. I stood motionless with the fabric in my hands, unable to move. I sat on the edge of her bed and stared at the floor for a long while, anger swelling inside me.
Then came all the small things that hurt most: dialling her number by habit and remembering it was gone, coming home from work with no one to ask if I arrived safely, walking past her house but not going in. No one prepares you for this silence.
People say, It was her time, God moves in mysterious ways, Shes at rest now. But I dont feel rest, only absence. Its as if she slipped away on a random day, without permission, without warning, without time to mend my heart.
What aches most is that it wasnt a goodbye. It was a sudden, sharp cutdry and final.
