Sisters- Final Draft

Note

My story is based on my sister and I but with a different outcome. She is still alive and is during well, we also have 2 other sisters. The backstories are true and the picture is also true.

Sisters

“Be strong Brooklyn, make it through,” I said releasing from our hug, a stray tear rolled down my face. Brooklyn reached her hand out whipping the tear away, “You know I can make it through London, I’ve had 4 already, I’ll see you again. Love you sis.” The doctors started pushing her into the OR (operating room), “LOVE YOU TOO, LITTLE SIS!”

As the funeral ended I stood staring at the freshly packed mound of dirt that now held, Brooklyn. I stayed for hours in the light drizzle of rain and harsh wind blowing every few minutes. I stood in shock, still unable to move. The doctors told us it would all be ok, her heart could take it, that she would return healthier then before. Brooklyn had her surgery 4 days ago she was 8. I was with her before the doctors took her, I was the last one to hear her.

“Brooklyn, you and I were best friends. We did everything together. We shared a room, now I’m by myself. We watched movies together, now I’m by myself. We traveled together, singing and dancing in the car, now I’m by myself. I’m by myself, I’m lonely” I said tears falling. I finally bent down to put the roses I bought earlier, her favorite. She used to pull the petals off one by one when she was little. I laidback beside her staring to the sky, hoping I could somehow see her.

People say that after you die you won’t hurt anymore, it’s not true. Death feels like a box, you can’t move around you’re stuck. You can watch people but you can’t go sit with them. You watch and listen to them struggle through life when all you want is to be near… “Brooklyn, you and I were best friends. We did everything together. We shared a room, now I’m by myself. We watched movies together, now I’m by myself. We traveled together, singing and dancing in the car, now I’m by myself. I’m by myself, I’m lonely.” London’s words pulled me out of my thoughts. I look down seeing tears falling, all I want is to hug her and sit with her. She lays down like she was looking up at me.“I’m here! London, London I’m here. I’m right here.” Nothing… she can’t hear me, but I can hear her crying to me. THIS IS TORTURE! All I want is to be with London and my family again.

I get up after an hour of laying beside Brooklyn. It was becoming colder, the wind blowing more and more. As I walk to my car I can’t help looking back at the grave thinking back to all our memories. I was four when Brooklyn was born, I will always remember that day.

“Honey, London. Wake up. I have someone I want you to meet,” my father’s soothing words wake me up from my peaceful slumber. “Come on, we are going to meet your baby sister.” As soon as I heard the words I shot up like a rocket, running out of my room. My dad stops me, “You have to change first.” After I changed into my ‘I’m the big sister’ shirt, my dad helped me in the car and started toward the hospital.
“How big is she dad? Does she look like me? What’s her name? How much longer?” I showered my dad with questions until we arrived at the hospital. Once we parked I ran as fast as my little legs would take me toward the elevator. The elevator doors were opened and I was ready to run, but my dad stoped me grabbing my had and leading the way. I jumped up and down until we stopped at a door.
“You ready to meet your sister,” I nodded my head, “Before we go in I need to tell you something.” His eyes met my curious eyes. “Your sister is different. She has a disability called Down syndrome. This means she’s not going to be able to do everything you do. You need to be careful, ok?” Still confused, but wanting to see my sister I nodded.
My dad opened the door, I walked in carefully like my dad said. “Honey I have someone who wants to meet the baby,” my dad said behind me.
“Is my big girl here?” My mother asked. After hearing her voice I slipped under the curtain covering the door.
“Mommy!” I said trying to hug her. My dad finally lifted me up to sit on the bed with her. “Where’s the baby?” My mom looked down at me with tears pooling in her eyes.
“I thought you were going to tell her.” My mom looks at my dad.
“I did, just not that part…” My dad walks over to me picking me up. “I’ll have a nurse take pictures.” He leans down and kisses my mom.

“Where are we going” I asked as we walked out of the room.
“We are going to see your sister.” He continues walking until we reach a room with parents and nurses. He goes to a sink off to the side washing our hands. After he dried them he handed his phone to a nurse asking her to take our photo. He finally walked over to what looked like a tub covering a baby. “London this is your sister, Brooklyn.”
I looked a my new sister for a long time. Dad said there was something different, but I didn’t see it. I saw my new best friend, my sister. Without looking away I asked, “Can I hold her?”
“No, honey she has to stay in there to keep her safe. Soon you can hold her, we’ll go home an…and she’ll come with us. We’ll be a fam..family, all of us.” I turned around to find my dad with streams of tears flowing down his face. Without hesitation I wrapped my small arms around my father. Looking back and smiling at my sister.

As I turn out of the cemetery, one of my favorite memory of Brooklyn and I crossed my mind, it was just after her fourth surgery. It was an emergency surgery and no one thought she would make it through but I knew she would.

I walk through the doors of the ICU (intensive care unit) knowing this is were the really sick or injured patients were. “If she was better she would be there not here, she’s not going to look like my sister,” I thought. “Dad what room is she in?” He points to the door with cards and pictures taped to the glass door. I reached her room, slowly reaching for the handle sliding the door open, just enough to fit through. As I walk through I lower my head making sure I didn’t trip on anything. I slowly lift my head to see my little sister only 6 years old laying on a hospital bed with pillows under her arms and legs. She has tubs and wires from her body leading to different machines or other things. The one thing that keeps catching my eyes, the ventilator, it’s the only thing keeping her breathing. I peel my eyes away to wash my hands with the familiar scent of the soap covering my hands. As I’m drying my hands I look around the room, there are gifts bags and a dozen balloons along the back wall of the room. I pull the chair to sit next to her bed as my parents sit on the couch talking about something. “Brooklyn, it’s me London, I’m here. You have to get better. You have to bet this. I can’t live without you. I’m only 11 and your 6 we have our entire lives ahead of us. I need you to be here with me. Please,” I whisper as I hold her hand.
I hold her hand and watch tv for hours, unless the doctors were doing something. “It is getting later, we should go get something to eat. What do you want?” My dad asked.
“I’m not hungry.”
“How about we go to the cafeteria, then we can come back,” My mom suggested. I agreed, and we walked to the elevator to go down. We ate for 30 minuets, then headed back up. “We’ll probably go back to the hotel London,” my dad said
“But you said I could stay longer.”
“You can, only till the doctors come around for the nightly checks.” I’m happy to stay longer but I wish I didn’t have to leave. When we made it to Brooklyn’s room my mom laid down to take a nap and my dad took the chair so I crawled into the end of Brooklyn’s bed. I laid in a little ball so I wouldn’t disturb her, but I could be close to her. I laid with her for almost 2 hours before we had to leave, so I slowly and carefully got out of the bed. I went to the top of the bed and put a small kiss on her forehead, and said “Goodnight Brooklyn, I’ll see you tomorrow. Get better, I love you.” before I had to leave. As I walked out of the room I turned around and looked at my baby sister.

When I get home I find my parents sitting in our room. “What are you doing?”
“We are looking at Brooklyn’s things. We…we found something for you.” She handed me a letter with my name written neatly on the front.
“What is this?”
“We found it in her dresser,” My dad said standing up with my mom walking out of the room leaving me standing in our room staring at the letter. I slowly walked to her bed sitting down. I ripped the envelope open pulling the notebook paper out. I opened the paper’s, seeing Brooklyn’s hand writing.

As I sit watching London drive home, listening to her tell the story of her seeing me for the first time, or when she sat at the end of my bed just to be close to me. I remember her telling me the stories when we were kids. I just hope she would find the letter I wrote her before my surgery. I did it before all of my surgeries just incase I wouldn’t return. I watch my parents hand her the envelope, she slowly walks over sitting down on my bed.

Dear London,

I never hoped you would read this but I wanted to leave you with something if I didn’t come back. Before I say anything, I want to say you were the best big sister anyone could ever ask for. You were always there to make sure I did the right thing or finished my homework. You were always protecting me, but you never over protected me like some people did. I could always come to you if I needed to talk or just to rant. You helped me become the best version of who I could be. I want you to live your life, don’t go down a dark path. Do something that could help people. Find a guy, get married, have kids. I don’t want you to be lonely.
Make sure mom and dad stay safe; don’t let them do anything stupid. Have them do something with my savings. Give it to someone like me so they can go to college, I want it to go to good use.
I can’t tell you how much I’m going to miss you and I can’t imagine what you are going through. This can’t be easy for you. Remember I will always be with you, I won’t leave you. I love you big sis. I will always be in your heart. I’ll wait to hug you again. I sit with Granp’s telling him all the fun we had.
Live your life don’t let my death hold you back. Let it push you to do great things. Thank you for helping me become the best version I could. I love you London.
Always with you,

Brooklyn
P.S. If you look in the closet there is a box on the top shelf with other letters. Keep these with you.

“Brooklyn, I love you. I miss you so much!” Tears rolling down my face. I open the envelope again to see if there was something I missed. I saw a small piece of paper, picking it up I turned it around. It was my favorite picture of us, it was after her fourth surgery. We were playing in the play room, and I got into the wagon with her. I hugged her and when I pulled back I gave her a butterfly kiss to make her laugh. When I stoped my mom got a picture of us, it has been my favorite ever since.

It has has been 21 years since Brooklyn passed away, I’m now 32. I did what she said in her letter. I became a cardiologist at children’s hospital in Omaha Nebraska. That was where she stayed when she was sick. I do heart surgeries from infants to teenagers. I am the head of the heart department, and the best in the United States. I get offers from many different hospitals to join them, but I always decline. I want to stay where my sister stayed. I do however travel a lot doing different surgeries across the world for different hospitals.
I married 3 years ago after I graduated med school. We have a baby boy on the way and agreed the best name was Lincoln. He is due in 4 months, we both are very excited. We are also in the process of adopting a little girl with Down syndrome. We are going to name her Brooklyn.
Right now I’m waiting to be announced at a TED conference. I’m going to talk about my new 3D printed hearts, you can use for a patient until they can get a heart transplant. “Please help me welcome, head of Cardio at children’s hospital in Omaha Nebraska. London Handson. I walk onto the stage, I start with the science behind the heart. When I finished I asked if anyone had questions. The first person I chose asked, “How did you get into the medical field and why did you chose to work with the heart?”
“Good question, I got into the medical field because my little sister had Down syndrome. She spent a lot of time in the hospital and I was with her a lot. I always loved learning new things and how it worked. I chose to work with the heart because she had 5 heart surgeries, before passing away on during her last surgery. She wrote a letter before her surgery. At the end of the letter she says, “Live your life. Don’t let my death hold you back. Let it push you to do great thing. Thank you for helping me become the best version I could.” I use her words to push me every day to be the best version of myself that I can be.” I quickly wiped away a tear. I looked around the room before my eyes stopped on a girl that looked exactly like Brooklyn, she smiled at me. I blinked and she was gone, and I continued with my conference. When I was finally done I walk off to be greeted by what felt like a hug but no one was there. My husband came up to me from behind hugging me. I brushed the felling off, thinking it was just him coming up.

I’m finally able to move around. I can come to earth and be around people. I don’t know how it happened but today I ways able to move and it has been the best day ever. London talked about her new technology and how she got into it. She talked about me and I smiled. She looked at me like she could see me so I hid, not knowing what to do. I watched her all these years, visiting my grave and watching her cry. Now I can finally be near and I don’t know what to do. I watched her get married, find out they were pregnant, and see them with the Mom, finding out they are getting her baby girl. Finally, I watched her come up with an idea of a 3D printed heart and see the idea grow, and to see it finally happen. I was watching over and all I wanted to do was be near her. Today I had that chance and I hid. After she was done I saw her walk off, he went behind and hugged her like I did when I was little. Her husband came up to her and hugged her. I’m so happy she found him, that’s all I ever wanted for, I just wish I was with her. “I love you London.”