Goodbye Cathy

“Bimbo, she is dead”, the voice on the other end of the phone said to me. I felt the earth beneath my feet move and found myself on my knees, as tears poured down my cheeks, all I could remember was her smile when she kissed her babies goodbye and told me she would see me in the evening. How could she be dead, her life just started, she just gave birth to these beautiful twin girls and they look soo much like her.
If anybody should die not Catherine, she was the kindest person I knew and her heart was too large for her own good. All she ever did was good and nobody really had a mean word to say about her. She was a beautiful girl, had a terrific husband who loved her to all the corners of the earth and no one can fault him for loving her so much, she was like sunlight in darkness, calmness in chaos, peace in rivalry she was the kind of person that just knowing her is a gift. Ultimately she was perfect. All I kept wondering was how the only Angel I knew was dead? It didn’t just seem right and a fresh batch of tears erupted from me and I couldn’t help shouting and screaming, “it isn’t fair, God why?”

I remember the first day I met her, I was crying in the toilet, I had failed a test and I didn’t understand why, and in walks this girl, I had seen her around in school but didn’t know her, she touches up her makeup while I’m trying to hold my sobs and she just hugs me and says “you will be fine”, just like magic I already felt better. She was a cleansing rain.
I heard Samantha crying in her crib as I lifted her, she started smiling and I realized she and Sabrina would never feel the warm touch of their mother, or remember her kisses, or even know what her voice sounded like. I couldn’t help the tears, but I had to be strong for the children of my best friend.
When Matthew came home that evening from the hospital with his brother, I could see nothing in his eyes. It was like his soul had died. He looked morose and forlorn; the pain that wrenched my heart was all I could feel. I knew how much he loved her, now what would he do without his sunshine, his other half, at that moment I could remember his joy at seeing her coming down the aisle on their wedding day and how nervous he looked and to think that after five years the person he had built his life for was dead.
I had to go home that night, but I promised Matt to be there first thing the next morning and told Dipo; his brother what to do if the girls started crying.
When I got home the first thing I saw was the picture we took on our last vacation together, she was three months pregnant then and she was already glowing. I cried myself to sleep, questioning God. In my dream I saw Cathy smiling and she looked soo happy and like that first time in the toilet she saw my tears, hugged and told me “you will be fine” and once again I felt peace.
When I came back the following day I met Dipo singing to the girls while wearing their diapers for them, I went into their room to get more diapers and saw Matt with Cathy’s scarf on their bed and he was crying, shoulder racking tears and deep sobs came from him. When he saw me, he said “Bimbo, she’s the only girl I remember loving, how am I supposed to continue? What will I say to our girls, how will I be able to even look at them when all I would see is Cat?” and I told him “you will continue, because Cat would be angry to see you sad and God knew he needed her soon, that’s why they both look like her, so he gave them to you so that a piece of Cat would always remain with us.”
Heaven couldn’t wait for you.
@nkemoyaghire