The day was great. I was sitting in class playing games and watching movies with all of my friends. It was December 16th and it started to snow a little bit outside. I was praying for a snow day. I made it through the day and I could not wait to get to practice. At practice, I made every shot and I was having an on day. We went over plays and I was told that I would be starting in the next game, which was in two days. I walked out of practice without a care in the world. I was happy, because we had a big game next week that I wanted to win and it was finally Christmas break. I jumped in the car and saw my mom in the drivers seat. Her eyes were all puffy, like she had been crying.

“What’s wrong mom?” I ask her
“Nothing, hon. I’m fine…don’t worry about it” she responded.

I plug my phone in to play my music in the car. I clicked on the Justin Bieber album to listen to his songs, just like the average teenage girl. After I few songs, my phone starts buzzing like crazy. I figured that it was just my basketball group chat about the game, but it wasn’t. I look down at my phone to see a text from one of my teammates: Im so sorry for ur loss. Im here if u wanna talk. I look up and to my mom with a puzzled look on my face.

“Mom?” I look over to her still confused and very worried, “What is this text from Dani all about? What does she mean by our loss?”

I saw tears running down her face.

“Wait until we get home. I want your father to tell you” she responded.

My hands had started to shake and questions filled my head. We pulled into the driveway and I slowly stepped out of the car and onto the snow covered driveway. I carefully walked over to the front door and into my house. My siblings and my dad were sitting at the counter and it looked serious.

“Why is Katie home? She should be at college” I asked everyone.

“Sit down” my dad responded very seriously.

My mom followed me through the door and I pick up my dog and sit next to my sister.

“As you guys know Nini was very sick” he took a deep breath to stop himself from crying. “She knew you guys loved her very much, but she passed away this morning” as soon as he finished that sentence, we all broke down in tears. In my head all I could picture was the last time I would ever see her, and that was yesterday.

“Bye Nini, I love you and I’ll see you tomorrow” I had said as I closed the door behind me and walked out of her room.
Little did I know, that was the last time I would see her.

I got up from the chair and I walked upstairs to be alone. I sat down in my bed and hugged the pillow that she gave me when I was a baby, and look at the picture of her and me in Disney together. I heard a knock at the door and my dad walked into my room.

“You okay?” he asked even though he knew the answer was no.

He walked over and sat on my bed and put my dog on lap. My dog put his head on my lap and lay there.

“Hey bud, I know this is hard but she has been sick for a while. This is just for the better. She doesn’t have to suffer anymore” he reassured me.

This was a very difficult time because I had not experienced death, where it impacted me personally. The next day, I didn’t go to school and stayed at home, because I really needed it. I went to the funeral on December 18th, the day of my game. I had to decide if I wanted to go to my game or go to the funeral. The funeral lasted until 12 and the game didn’t start until 2 so I was able to go to both. I went to the game and had one of the best games I had played that season. I had a career high of 12 points and 10 rebounds with 3 steals. I looked at my phone after the game and saw the Disney picture and it put a smile on my face even in that dark time.