Unzipped
By Megan Hughes

So, she is one of my best friends. My girl. Call to talk. Call to listen. Call to bitch. Just call to call. We help each other keep it together…keep things in order…keep things zipped. Been through a lot too…partying days, relationship drama, family issues, personal pain, career growth, hilariously embarrassing I can’t share with you moments, birth of kids (and I do mean kids “plural”…times 5), and then THIS…

THIS. A phone call on a Saturday evening, I hear her voice, so weak, so sad…”my baby’s gone, she died in my arms”.

THIS. A long lonely flight to her home, I hold her tight fighting back my tears, trying to be strong.

THIS. A sleepless night, I listen to her cries from the bedroom above and her prayers for help holding on.

THIS. A mournful morning, I help one of her daughters put on her Easter dress and shoes, but Easter is still days away.

THIS. A cold, rainy day, at a church packed with people, I watch her fall to her knees in front of a tiny white coffin and beg the Lord, through tears and cries, not to take her baby girl.

This. A day when I realized that no matter how hard we had tried, it just wasn’t in our control. Nothing was together…everything was out of order…and it all had just come UNZIPPED.

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I can’t capture the emotions from this time. It is still not real to me and the pain and sorrow that I felt over this time…I can’t explain. Seeing her in so much pain was one of the absolute saddest moments of my life. Without a doubt.