"Sometime in March" by Kailee N.

    March of 2013 is a time my friends and I will never forget. We were in 8th grade when we were faced with this horrible and tragic event. The memory feels as if it was yesterday. I was at home when my best friend called me and told me that her parents had been missing. I had a hard time believing the situation because this is something you hear about, but never actually consider it happening to someone so close to you. Right when we got off the phone, I immediately went to tell my mom, who was also very close to my friend. My mom told me she had a feeling that she knew this wouldn't end well, but with high hopes, I ignored that cold-hard truth. It wasn't long after, that I began to see it all over the news. Just being in complete awe that this was someone I had known and had been to their house numerous times. Two days had passed by, and still no sign of them anywhere. It was beginning to become real that this was really happening. I felt like nothing I said could have made my friend feel any better, it hurt so much to see someone I love so much to go through this. My friends and I tried to be there for her as much as possible, but it is hard to act so strong for someone when you're feeling the pain too. The third day was the worse of them all, facing the reality. Her mother was found, but not alive. It was as if even though we had an idea that this would be the case, all of us could still not believe it. We talked for hours and hours about how this could not be happening, and how we couldn't believe it, and how it seemed impossible. Everyone was in complete shock. An outbreak against domestic violence began very big and relevant in our lives. My friends and I knew the family had some minor family issues at home, like almost every family, but not like this. Eventually the funeral came, the crowd was filled with purple shirts that read “Peace.Love.Stop.Domestic Violence. In loving memory of…” . Everyone wanted to support the loss of this beautiful angel, and against domestic violence. It was at the funeral I realized me and my friends were in no way able to be strong for our friend, we couldn't handle ourselves, as we were not able to control our tears throughout the ceremony. It seemed as if our friend was taking this better than us, it seemed as if she was so much stronger, which now we know she is. She is the strongest individual I have ever known, and probably will ever know. This taught me to appreciate my parents and everyone around me more, cause you really never know when they’ll be gone. Its often that as teenagers, we sometimes forget to acknowledge this.