"I Love You,"

                              “I Love you, mommy”

                                        By

                                    Bakhtawar Wasi



Melisa was just a year old when her parents discovered that she had cancer. She, for a person so young managed with her illness with as much courage as she had. Her mother was a working lady, as when it was discovered that Melisa had cancer, her father disappeared to a place she knew not. Her mother took great care of her “little angel” and did not let Melisa out of her sight.

It so happens that people with cancer only survive for two to three years. Due to Melisa’s throat cancer, she remained weak and while other children her age ate candies and went to fun lands, Melisa had to go for her treatment to the hospital every week and the heavy treatment made her weak and sometimes left her unconscious for hours at a time. During this time her mother would patiently wait by her side and give her the courage to go on. Melisa on reaching her fourth year in this world became a mute due to the unbearable pain her cancer caused her. She would have fits during which time her mother’s courage gave Melisa the strength to fight and request God to not take her away just now.

Despite being a working lady, her mother never delayed anything that Melisa would want or have a need of. One day while she was cooking, disaster struck their lives. Melisa started having her fits, but this time they were even more painful than usual and Melisa’s tears would not stop even when she started becoming unconscious. That night her mother spent her time waiting outside her daughter’s room, anxiously watching the doctors come and go with grave faces. That night her mother stood outside her daughter’s room not knowing, not wanting to believe that her daughter might never place her little warm hand on her face again, that she might never look in those ocean blue eyes of her daughter again. She waited and waited for what seemed like eternity to meet her daughter again. Then at last the door opened and the doctors came out with their heads bowed and told her that Melisa wants to speak to her. And she understood. She rushed to her daughter’s side. She placed a hand beneath Melisa’s head gently and said in a whisper: “you go my angel. Mommy would be alright and be a good girl. Mommy would always love you angel.”

And with a last kiss Melisa’s hand dropped to her side and peace over came her antagonized face. She clutched a small paper in her hand; her mother gently took it out and smoothed it to read. It said:

              “Mommy, I am sorry to leave you. Love me always and

              Don’t forget to bring the candies you promised when you

              Come to live with me again.”