The other day, my mum left the house just like she did every morning. Earlier, shed texted me asking if Id had breakfast. I replied, Yes, talk later, and carried on working, thinking nothing of it. She wasnt ill, wasnt in hospital, nothing dramatic, no ominous goodbyes. Just another bog-standard Tuesday. One of those days you reckon wont change a thing.
At 4 oclock, my phone rang an unknown number. Turned out it was our neighbour, Mrs Jenkins. She says, Your mums had an accident. I asked where, and she told me which clinic. I dashed over straight away. They told me mum had slipped on the pavement, hit her head, and well they couldnt do anything. No drama, no last words. Just silence.
No final phrases. No hugs. No time for anything at all. I found myself staring at some pale wall while people explained paperwork, signatures, procedures, the whole admin circus. I phoned my brothers, voice wobbling, and managed to say what must be the hardest sentence of my life: Mums gone.
The real blow didnt land at the clinic. It was at her flat, when I went alone to collect her things. I opened her wardrobe clothes still waiting for a wash. Her sandals by the door, purse slung behind the chair, a half-unpacked bag of groceries in the kitchen. Every detail frozen at the exact moment life stopped.
I grabbed one of her blouses to put in my bag and caught a whiff of her favourite soap. Stayed there, clutching the shirt, unable to move. Sat on her bed and stared at the carpet for ages. And I was angry.
Then came all the little things that sting the most: dialling her number out of habit and remembering theres no one to pick up, getting home from work and nobody asking if I had a good day, passing the door to her flat and just walking by. No one warns you about this silence.
Everyone starts saying, It was her time, God knows best, Shes at peace now. But I dont feel peace. I feel absence. She slipped away on an ordinary day, without permission, without warning, leaving not a shimmer of comfort for my heart.
And thats what really hurts: it wasnt a goodbye. It was abrupt, sharp, left hanging in the airjust like that.
