Erica

My angel is named Erica. Erica Palomino. My son Charles was 16 when he met her. He was still in the aftermath of mine and his father’s divorce. He was confused and still hurting. Erica brought him out of all that. They had a love that anyone would say was impossible for people so young. I was there to see it though, so I know it transformed his life.

Charles was 18. Erica 17. They were asked by his older brother Don and his girlfriend to go on vacation with them to Florida. A free vacation to Florida, then they would begin their life together as adults. I myself believe in intuition. When they were getting in the car a thought ran through my mind, “This will be the last time.” I overlooked it; however, I look back at it as a forewarning of the pain to come.

Early the next morning the call came. Both my sons were in surgery for brain injuries sustained in a car accident in Alabama. They were expected to die. We were so scared. I was near collapse when we started out to my boys 8 hours away. The trip felt like years. I cried and cried, so afraid that they would be gone when I finally got there.

In the midst of this we got the call that Erica didn’t make it. The only one who was not injured was the driver. Tuned out she had enough drugs in her to keep her from getting hurt.  Nothing can compare to your child being pronounced dead. I can honestly say that losing Erica was as hard as my own child dying. The hurt Charles would have to bear I would also feel. That is if he lived. For days we waited. The doctor could not make it clear to me what the chances were…maybe because I did not want to hear him say that he couldn’t be sure. “Take it one day at a time,” he said.

Don was on a different floor than Charles. We ran from one floor to the other in a rush to get back to the other one. After days of family trying to wake them up and give them encouragement, Charles woke up all of a sudden. He had a huge scar on his shaved skull from the brain surgery. Don still slept. He had lots of scars. They were alive though. That is what mattered.

Charles did not know Erica had died as he had been unconscious for three weeks. He asked us why we just left the room and walked away and left Erica sitting there. He yelled at the male nurse for walking with her down the hall. We finally had to tell him that she died. He told us over and over that how could she be dead when she had been in the bed with him cuddled up to him, holding his hand the whole time he was “sleeping.” She was not dead. He never saw her again!

I do not attribute these things to being in a coma. They say that you never know why a person so young dies. We will never know. I know it was because if she hadn’t died that day, my baby would have. If Erica had not stayed with Charles through that ordeal he would not be here today. Erica pulled him through.
As I was watching TV one day I heard a new song that made me think of him. I cried and told her how sorry I was that I did not stop them from going. She said clear as a bell:

“Do not cry for me. I am in heaven. It is only the ones left behind that are miserable.”

I have had my crying spells since then, but not as many. When I think of her, it is to thank her for saving my young man. My family and I will never forget her. Erica the angel in life and death.

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