The Story of April

Jacob Clark

12/3/14

 

Ever since I was little, everyone always told me how inspiring my writing was to them. I used to hate writing, but as I grew older, I found that it helped me keep my sanity and move along with my life even in my darkest moments. When I was fifteen, I started a blog on a popular blogging website. Every day I posted something new, be it poetry, short stories, experiences, all written by me.

 

                I began to get more and more followers on this blog as I kept posting my work. My name was never attached to the blog or any of my writings. As I gained followers, people began to send messages to me telling me how good I write and encouraging me to keep writing. When my depression worsened and my writing became more about people struggling with mental illness, my followers messaged me from places I could only imagine going to. People from China, Japan, Russia, Great Britain, France, and almost anywhere in the world all talking to me, just a poor kid from Ohio struggling with mental illness.

 

                People told me how my writing inspired them to keep going even through the problems they had. Many of them even had the same problems as me. One night, I got online at about three in the morning and checked my messages to see what people thought about my most recent work. Someone with the screen name “ThE_sKy_CrIeS_iN_aPrIl<3” messaged me to tell me that she got on my blog every day because my writings kept her from killing herself day after day.

 

                We began talking and became friends. I found out that her name was April and that she lived in Australia. As we talked and swapped stories, I found out about her dark history and the nightmare she had to live in. She grew up getting abused ever since she was very little. Her mother would beat her when she was drunk and hit her with bottles that once contained liquor. When she was seven, her mother died in a car accident while she was drunk.

 

                After her mother’s death, her father began drinking just as heavily as her mother did. He didn’t get mean when he drank, but April still preferred her mother’s drinking over his. Every night, her father would get very drunk and come to her room and rape her. This went on from when she was seven and continued after I met her when she was fifteen.

 

                Every night I had to talk her out of suicide and help her through the problems she had at home, but she would never say a word to anyone about what her father was doing to her. This went on for an entire year. I went into drug rehab on November 2^nd, 2014, and I was very afraid of what would happen to her. I came back for a home visit on thanksgiving and checked my blog to see how she was doing. The last post was posted by a friend of hers who knew her password and username. She overdosed on prescription pills around her house and killed herself on November 5^th. She was sixteen the day she died, and it was her birthday.

 

                Although I never met April in person, and never even knew her last name, I know she was an amazing person and a great loss to the world. She was an amazing artist, and her drawings were so beautiful that they could have been put in a museum. She was the nicest person I have ever met and I know I will miss her forever. I will never stop writing, and if I can inspire people just to keep on going then I will keep posting on my blog to help people suffering from mental illness all over the world.

 

                This is for you April, you always wanted me to write a story just for you, so here it is. Rest in Peace beautiful.

Reviews

[Marie]

That is a sad story, but I'm sure April would be glad it is told.