24 Hours

Her beautiful child sat peacefully in the driveway drawing with her brand new pieces of chalk. “Look mommy it’s a heart! Does mine look like this too?” her daughter asked earnestly. She could feel the lie seeping out through her teeth, “Yes sweetie, your heart is perfect.” If only her daughter knew that she had 24 hours left to live.

At 2AM his father received the call, “There’s been an accident. We don’t know if he’s going to make it.” Rushing, he ends up at the hospital in ten minutes, looks down into his son’s eyes, and knows that in 24 hours his son will no longer be there.

The little girl makes her way onto the school bus for her first day of school. She knows she looks and speaks differently than the other kids, but she isn’t put down by that. Sadly, she walks into her house after that first day with cuts and bruises all along her face. In 24 hours should would have to face it all again.

Her life had become too much to handle. Both parents gone, her brother off around the country, she couldn’t take care of herself anymore. Her aunt’s painkiller was practically calling her name. “There’s no one left to miss me,” she thought. In 24 hours her parents would have come back to save her, only to find her lying breathless on the floor.

The old man had been battling cancer for six years. Old, frail, and weak, he laid in the bed connected to tubes just barely keeping him alive. He could feel his life coming out from underneath him, to weak to catch it like he had done so many times before. In 24 hours he would no longer have to hold on.

All she left him was a note saying goodbye. She “was done with his sneaky ways,” and, “It was time to pull the trigger.” Guiltily, he wept, knowing it was he who had caused her to end her life. What else could he do now but make it right? In 24 hours he would get a second chance with her.

It’s hard to think how drastically life can change in 24 hours. A part of someone may no longer be there, but what are we to do? Life doesn’t always give you second chances.