“I’ll be there for you.”

I remember, when I first told her that, we both just started laughing through our tears, unable to stop.

I lost count how many times I had prayed, begged, that this could stop! Why was she so sad? Her eyes never smiled. Why couldn’t life just be normal?

But until that day, there hadn’t been a single call back from heaven.

Months, years later, the answer came, and she moved out of second gear.

She smiled more. She laughed more. She was completely normal.

The frantic phone calls at midnight stopped.

The world seemed a brighter place.

Until the second fateful day came.

Another frantic phone call at midnight.

But when I answered, her voice didn’t come through the phone.

Her mother’s tearful sobs attacked me through the receiver.

The phone dropped from my hand, fell to the floor.

“I was there for you…” I whispered.