| At the end of the school year one graduated and the other had two more years ahead of her. Never once did they forget about each other and the friendship that they had. It was a few more months down the road when these two crossed paths with one another. Without saying a word they both new everything was ok and started over from scratch. With the exchanging of emails and nightly vists here and there, these two were friends once again. The world was perfect and everything was great right? Wrong. November 11, 2001..a very eager seventeen year old girl kissed and thanked her mother for cleaning her room, told her she would be back later so they could talk. She grabbed her cello and walked out the door. Thirty-five minutes later the phone rings. It was her cello instructor, " Is she coming to her lesson today?" "Yes", her mother replied. "It takes 20 minutes to get there, maybe she needed to stop for gas. Give her another 15 minutes and If she still is not there give me a call." With that said they both hung up the phone. Fifteen minutes later the phone rang again. "She still isnt here." the voice said. Her mother then hung up the phone and decided it was time to go look for her daughter. As her mother jumped into her car and proceeded to drive east towards the end of town she saw a blue truck towing in a car with the license plate Ruthy84. Quickly jumping out of her vehicle, a man told her to drive to the end of town where they police and ambulances were. Where was she? Her daughter, the love of her life wasnt there? A voice then told her " You need to go to the hospital, go and go fast" An hour later her mother, step-father and her two sisters arrived at Cardinal Glennon Childrens Hospital in St.Louis. The doctor came out and immediately sat them down...and said these earth shattering words. "Im sorry there is nothing more we can do" There she was lying in a hospital bed , hooked up to machines that were doing nothing but keeping her heart beating. She wasnt there anymore. She was gone. She was declared brain dead on November 12th. Her parents making the hardest decision of thier lives decided it was time and pulled off the life support. My best friend died November 13, 2001. I cried at the wake, and stayed by her side at the funeral. I sat there and recited a prayer with the past and present Speech and Debate members. |