We arrived at the cemetery, the smell of rain in the air. A perfect day for a funeral.

The priest said beautiful words over my fathers’ casket, a man he clearly did not know. Mother would surely be spinning in her grave. To add insult to the injuries she sustained in life by him, now he was to join her in eternal rest , beside her.

After he was burried, we gathered at Aunt Lani’s house. Everyone was whispering about me as I passed them. I had not been home since mother died 15 years ago.

My younger sister Moira, came up to me and said,” Father was a cruel man, Eve, I understand why you left us, had I your strength, I would have left as well.”

“I should have stayed and protected you and mother and Calvin.”, I said,holding back years of guilty tears.

“You’re right, you should have stayed”, my little brother, now grown up, said angrily. Calvin was so much like our father, cruel and unforgiving. What happened after I got away I did not know.
I would never forgive myself for leaving them behind.