My sister is always miserable. But one day she came from school and she was smiling. Did she meet someone? 

My sister is always miserable. But one day she came from school and she was smiling. Did she meet someone?

She did meet someone, but not someone she had met. It was some boy she had never seen before. He was still a boy, so she made him wait outside her house. But he wasn’t a boy for real. He was like a ghost or something. She wanted to say something but she couldn’t say anything, not even a hi. And when she wanted to tell him to leave, he said, “I am leaving but I want to give you something.”

“What?” She thought she was dreaming.

“I am leaving something for you.” He said, and he left.

She was too sleepy to wonder what he had left. She thought it was a dream and she went to bed.

When she woke up, she felt something in her pocket. She opened it and saw it was a rock. She put it in the pocket of her dress and went to school.

When she came back from school, she found the rock in her pocket. She kept it in the pocket and did not think about it.

A pessimist becomes an optimist.

A realist becomes an idealist.

A dreamer becomes a doer.

A starry – eyed romantic becomes a realist.

That’s what I learned.”

– Bob Dylan

These words have always resonated with me, but they particularly resonate now.

In that moment, they had never seemed truer.

The end of my trip was near, and I was in the most difficult and vulnerable place of all – that sweet spot between hope and fear.

Just minutes before, I had received word that my father had suddenly died at age 79.

His death had occurred less than 24 hours before.

We had planned to meet for dinner that evening, but his sudden illness and death meant that we were unable to attend.

I will never know how my father died.

He was always healthy, and I doubt that he had any major health issues.

But, after being hospitalized in the past with respiratory issues, I feel confident that it was likely a heart attack.

As the author of my own blog post, I am open about my own health challenges, and I share it with others so they know they are not alone.

But I know that many people have never been open about their health issues, so I will respect that privacy and keep this information to myself.

That said, I will share that my father had a significant heart attack earlier in the week and was in a coma when he died.

That was a shock for me to process, and I am sure for my mother.

My father was a mild – mannered man, who was fiercely protective of his family.

We were a close family, and he would have done anything for us.

When I was little, I remember that I would often ask him why he was so mad at me.

I couldn’t understand why I would do something to intentionally upset him.

It was a lesson for me to learn that you never knew when someone you love would be killed in an accident or in a sudden illness, so you had to always take the time to check in on them.

He died less than 24 hours after being hospitalized.

I am so thankful that I had time to call him, to visit him, to tell him that I loved him, and

When she went to bed that night, she did not want to take it out.

The next morning she woke up and did not find the rock in her pocket.

She thought maybe it was not real, but it was. She put it in the pocket of her dress and went to school.

When she came back from school, she found the rock in her pocket. She put it in the pocket of her dress and went to bed.

The next morning she woke up and did not find the rock in her pocket.

She thought maybe it was not real, but it was. She put it in the pocket of her dress and went to school.

When she came back from school, she found the rock in her pocket. She put it in the pocket of her dress and went to bed.

The next morning she woke up and did not find the rock in her pocket.

She thought maybe it was not real, but it was. She put it in the pocket of her dress and went to school.

The next morning she woke up and did not find the rock in her pocket.

And when she woke up and found the rock in her pocket, she did not see the boy.

She was alone.

“Is there someone at my house?” She asked.

“I am so sorry,” he said.

“I am going away,” he said.”