Faith In My Arms (true story)

You know how twins are... they're like halves of each other, like good and bad, or love and hate, but better... they're both the same, both good, both love... Well, this is how Faith and I were.

The minute something was wrong, I knew... I knew something wasn't right. When she so much as coughed, I was at her side. She was my other half... until that horrible night. It all began on June 2, 2005.

I ran down to Mommy. "Where's Faith?" I asked frantically. My mother looked like she was about to cry. I turned to the room where I heard Daddy. "Wha... What's wrong?" I asked with a stutter once I had entered the room. "Daddy..." But I stopped dead in my tracks. There, laying on the bed, was Faith, her body limp.

I heard the sound of Mommy's voice asking for an ambulance, but I didn't hear much else. I had left Faith's side for a moment to get us both drinks from our house just across the street from the park where we had been playing... and now... now...

Daddy leaned over Faith, shaking her. I rushed over, screaming, and Daddy moved aside sobbing to let me through. "Faithy!" I cried, using my childhood name for her, the name I still used at age 11. I looked at her and laid my ear against her bloodied chest. Her heartbeat... it was faint, but it was there. It was there... I was overly ecstatic, but worried that any moment, that faint rhythm would die away along with my life...

Just then the ambulance's sirens rung in my ears and I moved away expectantly from the bed as medics rushed through and quickly yet carefully lifted my Faith onto the stretcher. I followed along and listened just barely to the voices of the medics. Someone was saying, "11 years old... hit and run..." Right then, I didn't know what that was, but I figured it out with not much effort, knowing only being hit by a car could have done this to her.

Daddy held me back, but I broke through and Mommy followed, mouthing to Daddy, "Let her go..." Me, Mommy, and Daddy sat in the ambulance by Faith, whose broken body lay limp on the stretcher. I can't even remember if the ride was bumpy or what, but I suppose it was, because the stretcher rolled back and forth just a bit as we rolled along to the hospital.

Daddy sat with his arm around me, his face buried in his other hand. Mommy sat stroking my hair, my face in my hands resting on her lap. Maybe Daddy had been right to stop me... I couldn't quite bear to look at her, limp and barely alive.

We arrived at the hospital after what seemed like hours but was only a few minutes.

Faith was rolled out, and Mommy followed with me in her arms, Daddy tagging along like an abused puppy. We waited in the waiting room, but just before Mommy tugged me away from the window, I saw the medical equipment being pulled out and her pulse being taken.

We waited for hours. Then the doctor came out, looked at me with sorrow, and pulled Mommy and Daddy to the side and talked to them. Mommy leaned on Daddy's shoulder and her own shook with tears.

'Oh, God,' I thought. 'Faith's dead... she's gone, and there's nothing I can do...' But Mommy looked up at Daddy with a smile through the tears. "She's alive..." I heard the doctor say, then quieter, something barely audible, "but she's just so ma..." I didn't hear the rest, but it wasn't hard to figure out.

We stayed the night in the waiting room and the next day, I could see her. I went in. She was clean, and she was asleep. I tapped her lightly on the shoulder. She stirred and slowly and what seemed like painfully opened her eyes.

Her eyes suddenly widened. "Kitty?" she asked. "Where's Mommy... and - and... Daddy?"

I smiled through my blurred eyes. "They're out there. But I wanna talk to you first... are you okay?"

She looked at me. "I'm not in the greatest of shape, as you can see..." Faith said, trying to make a joke out of it... but I wasn't laughing.

"I love you, Kitty. How are..." but she never finished her sentence. It happened so fast... She was limp in my arms, the doctors rushed in...

Before I knew it, I was picking an outfit for the funeral.

That day, June 3, 2005, I lost my other half. I questioned my faith... until I thought of the word, "faith"... and I knew my Faith wouldn't want me to be questioning anything.

I never truly recovered, never have. It makes my heart ache to think of all those times when I was there with her, knowing just not being there one time changed everything. But I kept my trust in God... in Him, I kept my Faith...

~Faith, forever in my heart,

my precious twin, truly

my other half....

Faithy, I miss you. But you're

always with me in my heart~