Golden Girl - I

i remember getting into an argument with Queen Vic when we were in Secondary 3. Sarah stepped in to mediate. and we became friends, and closer still when we started exchanging stories of who we had crushes on - Mr Animal Rights for me, and Robin Hood for Sarah. Mr Animal Rights and Robin Hood were from the same school, you see.

Sarah and i lived very near each other so we started going home together, sharing even more of our lives. and then she stopped coming to school one day and we learnt that she was sick. but i don't think any of us understood just how.

one afternoon, having just returned from school, the class monitress called. she whispered something about Sarah which i didn't catch. i made her repeat herself twice more before i heard the words, "Sarah passed away this morning."

i went cold and for the first time in my life, i understood the sepration that stands between life and death.

i remember the last time i visited her in the hospital... i left to meet my cousins so we could go out... if i had known, i would have stayed with her all the way. but that's exactly it - we never know when it will be the last time we are with someone.

she was 15. she had been in and out of hospital for so long... had bruises where needles had been inserted to draw blood out for tests.

she was due to be discharged the morning of March 20, 1995. in the wee hours of that morning, the pain started in her abdomen. doctors gave her morphine but it didn't work anymore. she was crying at 2 plus in the morning and she begged her mum for a knife so she could cut out her stomach.

then she slipped into half-consciousness. her dad was rushing home. he was a sailor. finally, her mum whispered in her ear, "if you see the light, go towards it." she nodded weakly and she died.

she was a beautiful girl who had the most powerful voice. Robin Hood was faithful throughout but Sarah cut him off when she fell sick. Queen Vic related to us after, that Sarah had told her once, "Queen Vic, i'm dying." but she didn't think she was serious.

Robin Hood was always chased away whenever he went to visit her. even for Christmas and the New Year. he stood outside her house in the rain to hand her a Christmas present but Sarah refused to let her mum let him in.

he visited her at Mt Vernon everyday with a flower. Auntie D, Sarah's mum, finally had to have a heart to heart talk with him, asking him to move on. he was 16. he would move on in time to come but he needed to learn how to. he cried and said he was afraid he would forget her.

Blue Caps (also from the same school as Mr Animal Rights and Robin Hood) told me when we were together, that he finally understood why there was a period of time when Robin Hood used to sit at the school's rooftop.