Epilogue
~
If we hold on together
I know our dreams will never die
Dreams see us through to forever
Where clouds roll by
For you and I
~
Two years later
I smiled
sadly as I lay a single, long-stemmed red rose out in front of the marble
headstone.
“I love
you,” I whispered, looking up towards the heavens. “I hope you’re taking care of Brandon up
there for us.” I smiled again, knowing
how Leighanne had always wanted children.
I could just picture her now, up in Heaven, playing with Brandon.
I stood for
a few more minutes at Leighanne’s grave and then walked on through the cemetery
to meet up with Grace, who sat nearby in the grass, her back against another
headstone.
A lump rose
in my throat as I approached her and read the familiar inscription on the
tombstone, which was a small, white, marble stone with an angel perched on top.
Brandon Thomas Littrell
Born and Died on March 13, 2004
Fly, fly little wing
Fly where only angels sing
Fly away, the time is right
Go now, find the light
Born and
died on March 13, 2004. I swallowed
hard. It shouldn’t have been that
way. Brandon hadn’t gotten to
experience life at all. He died before
he got a chance to live.
“You okay,
Bri?” Grace asked, looking up at me sympathetically.
I nodded
slowly. “I’m alright,” I replied. “How about you? How do you expect to get up?” I asked, chuckling.
Grace
grinned, rubbing her round stomach. She
was going into her ninth month of pregnancy, and so far, everything looked
great. We were optimistic that this
time, everything was going to be fine.
I sat down
in the grass beside Grace, as she picked up a small children’s book. “Dr. Seuss’s ABC”. It was an old copy that was mine from when I
was little, complete with the red crayon scribbles I had made on the inside
cover when I was three.
Opening it
up, she began to read softly. “Big A,
little A, what begins with A? Aunt
Annie’s alligator, A, a, A. Big B,
little B…”
“You reading
to your baby, miss?” asked a voice.
I looked up
to see an elderly man standing in front of us.
He was on his way to visit a loved one; I could tell by the bouquet of
roses he carried with him. He was
watching Grace, smiling at her obviously pregnant stomach.
Grace
nodded, smiling. “Yes,” she said,
glancing heavenward, as she rubbed her stomach.
“I’m reading to both my babies.”
The man read
Brandon’s grave and suddenly understand.
Smiling sadly, he said, “God bless you.”
And then he shuffled off on his way.
Again, a
lump rose in my throat, and, swallowing it back, I gave Grace’s hand a gentle
squeeze. She glanced over at me and
smiled. Her smile provided me with
comfort, with strength.
I realized
then how lucky I was. Sure, I had been
through lots of hard times, but despite that, my life was good. I had a successful career, a wonderful
family, and great friends. I had a wife,
my soulmate, my best friend, my true love.
I had even had a child, and soon I would have another.
“What are
you thinking about?” Grace asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. “You’re just staring off into space and
smiling.”
I
chuckled. “Nothing,” I said. “Just thinking how lucky I am to have all
this.”
She nodded,
smiling at me. “We’re both lucky.”
“Yes, we
are,” I agreed. “We have each other.”
And really,
that was all that mattered.
I felt Grace
and I could get through anything when we were together. We had always been there for each other,
through the good times and the bad.
She came to
see me in the hospital when I was five, and I had protected her from David
Lawson when she was eight. She had gone
to the dance with me when I was thirteen, and I had held her all through the
night when she was fifteen. She had
supported me when I went to Orlando to join the Backstreet Boys, and I had lost
my virginity to her. She had been there
for me when Leighanne died, and I had saved her from marrying the wrong
man. She was there for me after my car
accident, and I was there for her when she broke her foot. She had gone with me on tour, and I had gone
with her to visit her father. We had
been together through everything, marriage, pregnancy, and even death.
We had had
many years of grace together. And I
hoped we would have many more.
The End
Lyrics taken from Diana Ross’ “If We Hold
On” (from The Land Before Time)
