Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Car Trip (07/18/05)
-
TITLE: Destiny's Car Trip | Previous Challenge Entry
By Dixie Phillips
07/22/05 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
Plopping my books down, I bounced up the stairs hoping to find my mother to tell her the news of the day, but what I found would change my life forever. There was blood splattered down the narrow hallway. I ran to the bathroom and discovered a pool of blood and red splatters covering the mirror.
“Mom!” I screamed.
I followed the red trail to my mother’s lifeless body. Her wrists were slit. She lay unconscious. I can’t really remember what happened next except an ambulance quickly took her away and my grandmother’s arms around me.
“Lynne, your mother is very sick.” Grandma whispered.
“Does she have cancer?”
“No, but she has a different kind of sickness. It affects her thinking.”
I threw my arms around my grandmother’s neck and wailed, “She will be okay. Won’t she, Grandma?”
“Your mother must be hospitalized. The doctors will try to help her. We will pray and put her in God’s hands, but right now you must pack up some of your belongings and come to on a little car trip with your grandpa and I. You’ll be living with us for a while.”
Numb, I rose to my feet as my grandmother began packing my belongings. I sat in the back seat of their car staring blankly into space trying to grasp what was happening. I was in 5th grade and a city girl, but now I was taking a car trip out to my new home miles away in the country.
Grandpa drove as Grandma brushed my long dark hair out of my red swollen eyes. “Do you remember when you called me the other day, Lynne?”
“Yes.” I whimpered.
“You were having difficulties in understanding your new math lesson.”
The hum of the car engine seemed to soothe my anxious spirit.
“You were learning about investments, weren’t you, honey?” Grandma asked.
Weakly, I nodded.
Grandma continued as Grandpa drove steadily down the narrow highway. “You said your teacher was showing you how if over many years you invest some savings that when you are older you will have quite a nest egg.”
Grandpa chimed in, “Just think, Lynne, you could be a millionaire!”
“I don’t think with the luck our family is having I’ll ever be a millionaire.” I choked.
Grandma’s arms cradled me as she whispered, “Lynne, you are the best investment Grandpa and I have ever made!”
I buried my face in her arms and sobbed as the car continued down the black top. Grandma held me and cooed softly in my ear, “Lynne, God is going to use you to help others some day.”
Suddenly the car came to an abrupt stop. Grandpa joined our family circle and asked the Lord to help us in the days ahead.
I never realized just how much I loved my grandmother until the day she was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. By this time I was grown with four children of my own and a minister’s wife. I hurried to her deathbed and reached for her hand as her chocolate brown eyes peered back at me.
“Lynne, you are so busy with your family and the church. You didn’t have to come.” She mumbled.
“Grandma, I wouldn’t miss being with you at this time. Remember when there was a little girl that was going through the most difficult time in her life and you took her on that car trip that changed her destiny? That little girl is here to help you now.”
Grandma squeezed my hand and drifted off to sleep. I stood by her bed weeping. I took a long walk down Memory Lane. This precious lady had left deep “footprints in my soul.”
Suddenly her eyes fluttered open.
“Lynne, why are you crying?”
“Grandma, I’ve never lived one day of my life without you. I can’t bear to think of you leaving me.”
“Lynne, we will meet again in Heaven. I will stand by the Pearly Gates and scan every face that comes through. I won’t rest until I see your face.”
“I will be there, Grandma, I promise.” .
“Lynne, there’s one more thing I want to tell you.” Grandma moaned softly.
I moved closer to hear her parting words to me.
“You’re the best investment your Grandpa and I ever made.”
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
