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| i hope there's strawberry ice cream in heaven.
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when i was in 1st grade, i had a best friend. she had a huge thing for strawberry ice cream.
her name was erica. i called her eek. er-eek-a. and i thought it was really cool that eek and erica both started with e. kids say the darndest things right?
erica was really pale and skinny and she had the thinnest blond hair and the clearest blue eyes, almost white. everything about her was almost transparent. i used to think she looked just like barbie but now thinking back on it, she looked like she was hardly even there.
my parents were really good friends with erica's parents too. so you would naturally think we saw eachother all the time.
false.
her mom always made up excuses for erica, saying she could never play. i could never get over how many dentist appointments, dance lessons, and visiting cousins that girl had.
i never understood why i couldnt have playdates with my best friend until erica stopped coming in to school one day.
i asked my mom to call her mom after school that day. my mom told me to chill out and go eat a popsicle, that erica was probably just not feeling well and she'd probably be back in school the next day.
but she wasnt there the next day. or the next day after that. or any day that week, for that matter.
and THEN, my mom finally called. and here is what she told me:
"erica is in the hospital. yeah that place you go to where you get shots sometimes. she's okay but she got really sick. or she's been really sick but it just got worse."
i asked my mom what she had. a cold? the flu? a bad case of the sniffles?
"no april. she has leukemia."
and then my mom and i, we sat down and had "the talk". no not THAT talk. the other talk. the life and death talk. yeah, when i was in first grade.
i wasnt allowed to visit erica because she'd get too excited and that would just make her even weaker. and for that reason, i decided to stop begging to see her. i wanted her to get better as soon as possible so she could come back to school and play with legos and dolls with me. i didnt want to make her worse.
erica lapoli died on february 10th. she was 5.
whenever we played dress up, she'd always pick out this one sparkly pink dress made out of swishy fabric. i think it used to be part of a sleeping beauty halloween costume.
all i remember is, when erica put that dress on, she was the most beautiful person in the world to me.
and now whenever it becomes too crowded and loud inside my head, i think of her, spinning around and trilling like this happy little bird in her sparkly pink dress.
and thats my story for today.
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| Blog Comments
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Woah, So sad.
Thx for that though.
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Posted by Blake11
on 2008-02-11 23:20:31
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It is hard seeing that from a child's perspective. I was 9 when my 5 year old sis was diagnosed with Leukemia. I met a lot of amazing kids on that floor of the hospital...some made it, others didn't, but their memories are with me always.
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Posted by ladiegodiva
on 2008-02-11 23:22:48
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| Views: 60
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