Flash Fiction Friday

This week’s prompt for Flash Fiction Friday:

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”
-Robert Frost

Today’s post is a little bit more narrative non-fiction than fiction, but it was what I felt inspired to write today.  I hope you enjoy it, and share your own Friday flash fiction with me.

Never Break The Chain

More often than not, I wait a little while before telling people that I lost my dad to cancer. It’s one of those things that is very defining and very personal all at the same time. And for some reason, when you have to mention it on conversation, strangers tell you how sorry they are.

They mean well. I know that. But I don’t go back to that place of loss all the time, even when I mention it. I miss him, everyday, sure.

I miss him more when I see my nieces and nephew smile and I see a glimmer of him in their eyes. I miss him when I listen to 80s music, or hear Fleetwood Mac on the radio.

But I don’t always want to share that pain, that loss, with everyone I meet.

I still feel him sometimes. Mostly through music, but other times not. Some days I feel his hand on my shoulder, pushing me to be brave. In June it’ll be ten years since we lost him, and though he is never forgotten, we keep going. We build in his honor and we heal in his honor. We find joy in the things he taught us and the things he cherished. We know that everything will be okay and the best is yet to come. Life goes on, so we must go on too.