I sat there, holding your hand and listening to the machines steadily help you breath, and everything caught up all at once. The tears were hot streaming down my face and my breathing was rigid, and I couldn’t leave your side.

Open your eyes. I begged silently because I didn’t have the courage to say the words out loud. Your fingers were curled in mine, freshly blue from when I painted them to pass the time. A simple twitch came now and again, each time I watched you more intently.

I never left the room, except to bawl in the bathroom and curse on the roof. It did not seem fair, that bad things happen to good people. I patiently waited to wake up from this nightmare, but the days dragged on.

They told us that she wasn’t getting better, yet we should be thankful, she isn’t getting any worse.

I’ll cry for her, I’ll cry for her siblings, and I’ll cry for the poor plow driver. He tried desperately to clear the streets during a storm, and the snow, it kept coming.

Open your eyes. I wished to see her beautiful blue eyes again, and hear her laugh. Her laugh was something I hadn’t heard in years, something about growing up and moving away makes you forget how important those little things can be.

I’ll get down on my knees at the edge of the bed near nine o’clock, when visiting hours are over. I’ll hold her hand, clinging to it as if her life depended on it, and I’ll pray.

I’ll pray for her strength and stubbornness, to put up a fight and heal so that she’d return in a few days time. I’ll pray to see her again, to hear her laugh, and to hug her and have her hug me back. I’ll pray for my family, her mother, her sisters, her brothers.. to make it through this just as she would.

Open your eyes. So that, we too, can open ours as well.

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My cousin, Sallie, sixteen years old, got into a car accident February 12th, 2019 and is in critical condition. Due to a snow storm, the car that she was in lost traction and she got injured.

Please send prayers and positive thoughts for my family, thank you.