Happy Birthday

not all birthdays are happy.

  "Happy Birthday baby girl." A young man left a bouquet of lilies by a grave in front of him. "Hey love, I miss you, so much..." a bouquet of roses were placed on the grave to his left. The tears in his eyes threatened to spill as he continued to talk.

  "It's been a year now, since that day. I miss you both so much. How could you leave me all alone like this?" The tears spilled over as he couldn't hold it in anymore. "How could you leave me, when we finally had each other?"

  So clearly, so vividly, he remembered that day. Where he'd been stripped of his precious ones. It should have been one of the happiest days of his life, it should have been...

  

  Her water had broken and they were both scared. She wasn't due for another month still. And they'd already been notified of some complications that could arise when she gave birth. Not to mention she was still recovering from a recent brain surgery.

  The contractions were coming faster and closer together as they got closer to the hospital. Cold fear and anxiety gave him the strength to carry his wife into the emergency room. The hospital staff helped him put her on a bed when she started screaming.

  Trying to calm her down they realized why she was screaming hysterically. She was bleeding profusely between her legs and they rushed her into an operation room.

  He wasn't allowed to follow. He couldn't be by her side. Maybe if he had things would've been different. Maybe then she'd still be alive.

  Five hours later, he was let in to her recovery room. His wife was asleep and alive, but pale as death and her breathing labored. The medics around him had unreadable faces as a nurse handed him his daughter.

  She was beautiful. She'd already been cleaned and bundled up. But when his hand gently brushed against her cheek he stopped.

  His little girl, she was so cold. He was confused, and his mind raced as the world spun around him when suddenly realization hit him in the gut like a punch to the stomach.

  One of the medics stepped forward to speak. " We're sorry Mr. Castitas, we did everything we could." Behind him he heard his wife begin to sob. "Gabriel, she's... Gabriel please tell me she's not dead."

  Gabriel Castitas went over to his wife, cradling his daughter in one arm as he used his other arm to hug his wife close to him. "Karla, they couldn't do anything about it."

  He scrambled as her heart moniter began to race and she began to convulse and bleed again from between her legs. Doctors and nurses pushed passed him as they yelled out orders to another as they pushed him away.

  "Karla! Karla! Let me go! Damn you people let me be my my wife's side!" He shoved their arms away as her heart moniter slowed to almost a complete stop and he kneeled at his wife's side.

  "Karla, Karla stay with me please, look at me love look at me!" She raised her hand up weakly to touch his cheek and smiled at him. "I see you my love. Name our daughter Amore. Amore Castitas. I like the sound of that..."

  Her hand slipped and her breathing slowed to a stop. She was leaving him. "Karla! Karla please, I love you. I need you. C'mon you can pull through this please."

  A nurse took the baby out of his hands and the doctors respectfully left the room to allow him time to mourn. His world, his everything, it was gone...

  He was brought back to reality as he slowly remember where he was again. He looked at the tombstones again, reading what was engraved on each. Karla Castitas. Loving wife and daughter. September 15, 1980 - October 23, 2009. Amore Castitas October 23, 2009. Little angel that never got to spread her wings.

  He touched a hand to his lips then to each tombstone, giving a kiss to both. "I love you two. I know you're smiling down on me. Please wait for me at heaven's gate. I promise, you won't wait much longer."