Her mouth dropped.

    “Wait, what?” I screamed.

     Silence. I couldn’t think of any words to describe what I had just heard. How is this happening? It’s amazing the things we take for granted. We make plans for the day after tomorrow, and don’t think twice about how life can change in the blink of an eye. I don’t think anyone really thinks about tragedy, until they are faced with the shocking news.

      Brooke. The girl who was at church every Sunday with her parents, singing the praises of God. She was only 14. She had spent her whole life putting others before herself. I was at El Nopal with my family, laughing and joking around, when she got the text. My mom picked up her phone and her eyes got big.

      “Brooke passed away unexpectedly last night” my mom read the text out loud.

     “What?” I cried out as my heart started beating faster and faster. “What happened?”

 I was in shock and so was my mom.

     “She was my favorite student,” my mom exclaimed, trying not to cry in the middle of the restaurant.

     “She was my best friend in kindergarten,” I said, not being able to hold back the tears. “Everyone loved her.”

     She was everyone’s favorite. She had been the kind of girl who cared for each person she met. She graduated from Ascension and was getting ready to attend Mercy Academy. Brooke passed away unexpectedly on Friday, July 26, 2019. She went to bed with a headache and was unresponsive the next morning.

     Thursday morning, I woke up not knowing what to expect, or what was going to come out of that day. I had never been to a funeral like that, for someone I was that close too.  The car ride there was mostly silent.

     “Are you ready?” my mom asked. I nodded my head, not wanting to walk in.  

     I walked slowly into church and sat down in a pew in the front over towards the side. Soft quiet music played from the piano. The church was full of people and quiet chatter echoed throughout the building. There we large, petite flowers sitting in the front of the church and on both sides of the casket. I look over and saw her best friend. I can’t even imagine what she feels like. They did everything together. They had been inseparable. I looked up and noticed her parents, who were standing there frozen, with a look of brokenness across their faces. I observe all her friends, and all the girls I had gone to kindergarten with and that she had gone to school with since kindergarten looking sad and not being able to comprehend what had happened. All her teachers sat in pews, thinking about what a big light and joyous soul the world had just lost. As I walked up for Communion, the casket was on my right. At that moment, it hit. She was gone. She was gone forever. God had chosen to take her that day and we will never know why. As I stepped slowly back to the pew, I realize how special life is and how it can be taken away in an instant. I hugged my mom, with tears streaming down my face and I felt a stabbing pain in my heart, something I had never felt before. As the funeral Mass ended, we walked out of church and my mom hugged Brooke’s mom.

     “I’m so sorry. Please let me know if I can help”, I heard my mom whisper.  

     I couldn’t begin to imagine what her parents were feeling. They lost their entire world. We stood out with a group of teachers and parish members from Ascension and some of her friends to line the street as the hearse and cars followed for the procession. Silence filled the air as I saw the police lights with the procession start to come down the road. I stared at the hearse, knowing that she was in there and I will never see her again. Why her? Why so sudden?

     “She had such a kindhearted spirit”, I heard someone say in the distance.

      Her parents, family, and friends will never see her joyous smile or hear her contagious laugh again. The world will not get to experience what a light and positive impact she was anymore.

     As we returned to the car, my mind drifted off, thinking about all the memories I shared with Brooke. From sitting next to each other every day in kindergarten, to getting milkshakes after school on Fridays, to even just seeing her and her mom at the grocery store not even a year ago. My mom looked over and touched my hand. “She’s in heaven now. She’s looking down on us” my mom comforted me, with tears streaming down her face.

      Oh my gosh. This is the end. This is it. The autopsy report revealed that she had had a stroke, and there was a blood clot in her brain. It hits hard knowing someone my age has passed so unexpectedly.

     Brooke’s story inspires me to tell my family and friends that I love them, because in the blink of an eye, everything can change. God has a plan for everyone and we will never know why He decided to take her that day with her only living 14 years of her life. Sunsets were Brooke’s favorite. “Look how pretty God painted the sky”, she would always say. Every time I see a sunset, I think of her and how she is looking down on us. On the morning of Friday, July 26, 2019, God brought Brooke up to heaven with welcoming arms.