Two Tortured Souls

Two tortured souls……….
He saw her sitting on the front steps. He smiled at her and they talked for awhile. He convinced her to go out with him. She agreed even though he was from another state and would only be there working for a short time. One had been heartbroken by a man that she thought really loved her, and didn’t have a happy home life. The other moved far from his abusive father and family, but never really said what happened. It would be years before the truth would come out. Two souls already in turmoil.

Two tortured souls……….
Got married shortly after the first meeting on the stairs that night. Neither ever truly happy with the other, each having a secret vice in their heart. One’s heart held on to a long lost love, the other held an addiction. They would forever search for the happiness that neither one brought to the other. They tried to find it in new places, alcohol, old lovers, gambling, and fighting.

Two tortured souls……….
Brought a sweet baby girl into the world eight years after they married. Each loved this little girl with all that they had. Soon she would become their focus, and their pawn. Forever being caught in the middle was to be this little girl’s destiny.

Two tortured souls………..
Moved far away from everything they knew, their daughter in tow, to a great place with beautiful weather, wonderful friends, and a perfect place to plant roots. Roots that would be pulled up much too soon. Nothing had matured enough, there was still much growing to be done. The fighting became more intense. One day the little girl was told they were moving far away, across the map. Moving broke her heart The little girl was now well on her way to also became a tortured soul.

Two tortured souls………
Always blamed the other, always holding the other's vice over each others heads, always pulling their daughter into all of it, forcing her to pick sides. She vowed that she would never do that to her own children. Life went on, everyone got older. They had mellowed, but were still distant with each other. The daughter got married, more than once, and now had two beautiful children of her own.

Two tortured souls………
One always working long hours, any hours, to feed his addiction. The other always unhappy and living in the past, forever talking about the old days. By now it was certain that both needed help. Help that would be refused and never sought after. The daughter would continue to blame herself for her not taking a firmer stand. But the thoughts of the impending wrath that would come down on her, was more then she could handle.

Two tortured souls………..
Were heartbroken when their daughter decided to move far away with her children. They were all that each of them really had. They never really “had” each other. They lived out their lives in contempt of each other. No love, no passion, no good times, nothing, only contempt. Each had a special relationship with their daughter. One loved and adored her, and would do anything for her. The other loved her, but brought her into every argument, and would not speak for weeks on end if she did something that she didn’t like, or wouldn’t agree on an issue that she was having.

Two tortured souls………..
Decided to move to where their daughter and grandchildren had moved. This worried their daughter since the past had proven that things would go smooth for a short time, and then all hell would break loose. This wasn’t what she wanted her children around. But there was nothing she could do, but grin and bear it, something that she had learned to do long ago.

Two tortured souls………..
One got very sick, the other acted as if nothing was wrong. The only visitor he had during the long hospital stay was his daughter and his grandchildren who came every single day.
She said hospitals made her nervous and never went once. When he came home, he was still recovering. Meanwhile the daughter had to listen to complaints day after day, along with accusations that he wasn’t really sick. Then the cancer went into remission and he went back to work. He had to find a way to escape the unhappiness that he was subjected to every day at home. He seemed like his old self again, and his daughter was so glad that he was healthy.

Two tortured souls………..
8:00 one morning the phone woke her out of a deep sleep. First she ignored it and then when it kept ringing, she finally gave in and answered. She heard her Mother’s panicky voice saying her Father had collapsed at work and where the ambulance had taken him. She quickly got ready, along with her children, and headed to the hospital. They were 15 minutes away when she called to say he had died. Just like that. His long, laborious life--over. Regrets that the hospital trip took too long and that she wasn’t there with him when he passed away will now haunt her forever.
His tortured soul gently lifted out and went to the place where all things are made new again. His tortured soul now healed. No more sorrows, bad memories, hardships, or addictions.

Two tortured souls………..
One gone forever. Once again she was the only one to spend time with him, the one to say the last good bye. This was one more place that her Mother refused to visit since it made her nervous. She sat there with her Dad for over two hours. Never wanting to leave him, not believing this was happening. She talked to him, hoping he would some how hear her. Hoping he had understood how much she loved him, would always love him. When she kissed him goodbye that final time, she felt her heart break into a million pieces. The hardest thing she ever had to do was leave him alone in that room.

Two tortured souls………..
One was left behind, and having no one to pick on regularly, tried her best to rip apart her daughter’s soul. Telling her things like it was her fault that her Dad died, if they had not moved here because she did, he would be fine. Telling herself that cancer doesn’t only strike you in certain states and that it will find you wherever you are, kept her own soul from being tortured…. for now. She did her best to keep it out of the range of the harmful arrows that were constantly being shot towards it.

Two tortured souls………..
The days grew long and the disease got worse. Watching her Mother slowly fade into a shell of the woman she once knew, took a toll on her that no one could ever understand. Through all the misunderstandings, fights, mental abuse, and silent treatments, she still loved her. She had hoped for so much more for her. One day she was taken to a place called the end of life unit in hospice. It was here that she would breathe her last breath. The daughter faithfully visited, along with her grandchildren every day. Knowing she was there to die, and being forced to watch her die, was the worst torture imaginable. It was a slow, endless descent that went on much longer than anyone expected. They went in one afternoon to see her, only to be told she had just passed away minutes ago. Again she was a few minutes too late. And so once again she found herself spending the last few moments with someone that she had loved all her life. Whispering words that she hoped that she could hear. Kissing her, she left the room and couldn't look back.  Her tortured soul was also now gently lifted out and brought to that place where all things are made new again. For her a place of no more regrets, anger, searching, and placing blame.

Two tortured souls………..
Their daughter prays that both souls have found peace and rest. Both lived fairly long lives, yet she can’t help but feel that neither life was ever truly happy, or fulfilled. The lesson she learned from all of this? Live life to its fullest. Don’t hold on to petty arguments, past lovers, past and present addictions. Let go of the past and live in the present, and never, ever hurt the ones that love you. In the end all the resentments, arguments, and silent treatments all add up to time not being with the ones that mean so much to you. Life is way to short to hold on to the things that won’t matter after you are gone. What will matter are the happy, positive memories that you leave behind.

One tortured soul……….
The daughter left behind. Left with her own demons to fight off, trying frantically to heal her own tortured soul. Words unrelentingly keep playing through her mind; “some day when I am gone you will be sorry,” “he would still be alive if we didn’t follow you here,” “the only reason I stay with him is because of you”…..so many words that have poisoned her mind, her heart, her soul all through her life……she struggles to forget, to forgive, to live.