@spacefoothball It helps when you pour your heart out and say everything that is hurting you but at the same time I feel like it's a sign of weakness because it makes you vulnerable
The Girl Who Was Everyone’s Helper
There is always one child in a family who grows up before everyone else.
Not because they want to.
Not because they are ready.
Life simply gives them no choice.
For Rae, that child was her.
She was the older sister who knew how much food was left in the kitchen. The one who noticed when her younger sisters needed new shoes. The one who knew who had school the next morning, who had a fever, who was fighting with whom, and who needed comforting after a bad day.
Their parents were there sometimes.
But being there and actually being present are two different things.
So Rae became the person her sisters could count on.
If one of them cried, they called Rae.
If there was no money for something important, Rae tried to find a way.
If someone needed advice, they came to Rae.
She became a sister, a protector, a friend, and sometimes, whether she liked it or not, a mother.
Nobody really asked her if she was tired.
People just assumed she could handle it.
And Rae rarely complained.
She would smile and say, It’s fine.
That was her favorite lie.
Because sometimes it wasn’t fine.
Sometimes she wanted to be selfish.
Sometimes she wanted to wake up and think only about herself.
Sometimes she wondered what her life would have looked like if she hadn’t always been responsible for everyone else.
But she loved her sisters.
So she stayed.
She helped.
She sacrificed.
And somewhere along the way, she forgot that she was allowed to have a life of her own.
Then she met Yode.
And for the first time, Rae wasn’t somebody’s older sister.
She wasn’t the responsible one.
She wasn’t the person everyone needed.
She was simply Rae.
Yode saw the woman underneath all the responsibility.
He saw how tired she was.
He saw how much she gave.
And somehow, he made her feel like she didn’t always have to be strong.
With him, she could laugh without worrying about tomorrow.
She could dream.
She could be cared for.
She had finally found what felt like the absolute love of her life.
And Yode found something in her too.
A partner.
A best friend.
His helper.
He would always call her that.
My helper.
Because she was.
She was there when things were difficult. She stood beside him. She helped him carry the things he couldn’t carry alone.
For once, Rae had someone who was taking care of her while she spent so much of her life taking care of everybody else.
And perhaps that is what makes her story so painful.
Because just when she found a place where she could finally rest, life took her away.
Rae died.
And the world did what the world always does.
It kept moving.
The sun came up.
People went to work.
Children went to school.
Bills still had to be paid.
Food still had to be cooked.
People still laughed.
Her sisters eventually had to continue living.
Not because they stopped loving her.
Because that is what life demands from the people left behind.
But sometimes, when the house is quiet, they remember.
They remember the sister who raised them.
The sister who sacrificed for them.
The sister who was always there.
And Yode remembers her too.
Every single day.
He remembers his helper.
The woman who loved him.
The woman who stood beside him.
The woman he thought he would grow old with.
Maybe that is the hardest lesson in Rae’s story.
We spend so much of our lives worrying about tomorrow.
We postpone happiness.
We tell ourselves we’ll rest later.
We’ll travel later.
We’ll love later.
We’ll enjoy life later.
We’ll do something for ourselves later.
But later isn’t promised.
And when we’re gone, the people we spent our entire lives worrying about will eventually have to move forward.
They will cry.
They will miss us.
They will remember us.
And then, somehow, they will keep living.
So live.
Love your family, but don’t lose yourself trying to save everyone.
Help the people you love, but remember that you deserve help too.