Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 130275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Tala was smiling, but then it faltered. “I like that,” she said. “What you said about the stars.”
“Then what is it?” I asked, noticing something was on her mind.
“I just feel tired a lot now. So tired.” She lifted her gaze to mine. “I’m not sure I shine as brightly as your sister did. Sometimes I feel like my light is fading. That things are getting dark.”
My heart skipped at her sad words. Leaning down, I squeezed her hands tighter and said, “Stars shine brightest in the dark.”
The smile she gave me in return rivaled the glow of the stars, the moon, and sun itself. “My name,” she said, “Tala, in Tagalog, our language, means ‘bright star.’ I’m named after the goddess of the stars.”
I felt it then. A ripple of destiny shimmer between us. The feel of a soft hand pressed in on my back, and I knew Poppy was beside me. A sense of fate or something like it filled up the room. I knew that Tala’s path and mine were meant to cross. I was meant to meet her and she me.
A knock at the door sounded and Susan popped her head in. “Tala, your family are here to take you home.” The door opened wider, and a young boy and a girl entered, jumping onto Tala’s bed, wrapping her into their small arms.
“You’re coming home, darling!” a man said with an English accent from the doorway, blushing slightly when he saw me beside his daughter. “Oh, sorry to interrupt.”
“It’s no problem,” I said. When I looked to him, I saw Tala’s green eyes staring back at me. I smiled at him and the woman who came through next—her mama.
Rising from the bed, I released Tala’s hand. She smiled at me. “Bye, Savannah.”
“Bye, Tala,” I said, my throat graveled. Because I knew I would never see her again.
She swallowed, then over her sister’s and brother’s heads, said, “I’ll see you from the stars.”
I gave her a watery smile. “I’ll be looking for you,” I managed to say back before leaving the room and walking straight into the private family room to the left. I lifted my head toward the ceiling and let the tears fall in twin rivers from my eyes. I covered my face with my hands and just let all the sorrow for Tala’s situation spill forth.
Tala was so brave, so pure. She was such a beautiful soul and didn’t deserve to die.
“Savannah?” Mia came into the room, followed by Susan, shutting the door behind them.
“I want to do this,” I said, without a single doubt in my heart, my voice thick with emotion. “I want to be a pediatric oncologist. I want to help cure these children who do not deserve to be sick. I want to work so hard that one day, cancer won’t take people away from their loved ones. I want to help so that cancer—all cancer—is curable. I want it. So much.”
With every word spoken, my voice became stronger. I became stronger. I wanted this so badly that I knew I’d be going to Harvard this fall. I’d be pre-med, and I wouldn’t stop until no other family had to lose a Poppy, a Tala. Lose a treasured branch of their family tree.
“I can do this,” I said to Mia. “I know I can.” I smiled and said, “Because I’ll have Poppy in my heart.”
Mia’s eyes shone and she held me in her arms. “I’m so proud of you, my girl.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
The truth was, I was proud of me too. And I was immeasurably proud of Poppy for making me see this. For her journal, pushing me and holding me through the pages when I didn’t have her arms to embrace me in real life. And I was proud of Tala, for allowing me this gift—of speaking to her, of helping me find my inner strength when I thought it had been lost. I was honored I’d met her.
I left the hospital with a new determination in my step and a sense of purpose in my heart. I would take on whatever came next with gratitude in my heart. Because I had a light I could share with the world. Just like Poppy had. We shared the same blood. What ran through her ran through me.
I would do this for us both.
Thoughtful Gestures and Music Reborn
Savannah
Manila, The Philippines
A few days later
IT WAS OUR LAST NIGHT IN THE PHILIPPINES. THIS HAD BEEN THE MOST emotional and difficult country on our trip. I was still raw from my talk with Tala, but my determination had held strong. I knew I wouldn’t waver from what I wanted from my life. I was going to be a doctor. I was steadfast in that ambition.
It didn’t mean I wasn’t emotionally rocked by meeting the children who were sick and those who were dying. From talking to Tala about her final days and what came afterward.