美国青少年故事（7）

Hi everyone. I'm Lisa and I'm 20 years old. I want to come clean and tell you how I lied to my sister for 6 months. I wanted the best for her, and I hid our mother's death from her. Now I don't even know how I can fix it.


My mother, my sister Hannah, and I were a very strong family. Especially after dad left us. It was a big blow for my mom and me. But we had to be strong, because Hannah was only 4 years old, and we had to pull together and focus all our strength into taking care of her. Six years had passed since then, and our relationship was only getting better. My mother is a great example of a person who was willing to give everything for the sake of their children. She worked hard and often went on business trips. She did all this to be able to provide for my sister and me. And she was good at it. We never felt poor or unhappy. I can say with confidence that I had a happy childhood. Unfortunately, no one can stop the passage of time, and when I graduated from high school, I needed to continue studying, and I moved to another city and entered college. It was probably the saddest moment of my life when I stood with a bunch of bags and said goodbye to my mom and Hannah. We could only believe that love overcomes time and distance, and we could survive these few years of separation.


Overall, I enjoyed my new life. I met a lot of interesting people, I did what I liked, and I learned a lot. But at the same time, I was worried about my sister. She was very lonely. The thing is, my mom was still on business trips a lot, but now I couldn't be around my sister all the time. Thank God mom had good friends she trusted and who were always happy to help. So she could leave Hannah with them for a week and not worry about her. Plus, my sister loved spending time with the son of my mom's friends. So it was a win-win situation. My mother could continue to earn money, and Hannah did not feel lonely all the time. This went on for a long time until I received a call that turned my life upside-down.


One night I was awakened by a phone call. It was an unknown number. When I picked up the phone, I was given terrible news. It was a doctor, and he said my mother was in the hospital. She had had a heart attack at the airport when she was going to fly home from a business trip. Of course, at that moment I jumped out of bed, and began to pack my stuff. I had to go to my mother. I was lucky, and the next flight out was in the morning. During the entire flight, I couldn't calm down, and I was worried the whole time. I hurried as fast as I could. When I landed, I ran to the taxi, knocking people down.  But unfortunately I wasn't fast enough. On the way to the hospital I was given even more terrible news. My mother was gone. For a few minutes I just sat in a stupor, trying to understand what had happened. Then I was flooded with feelings and I just cried. I was so sorry. I didn't even have the time to say goodbye. The whole world was just disappearing before my eyes.


I have entered the darkest period of my life. I cried for days. Even when I knew I had something to do, I just couldn't put my hands up. During those couple of days while I was doing paperwork, I couldn't eat, drink, or sleep. I felt myself falling into a dark abyss. I had lost the last ray of light and hope, and I just didn't care if I crashed to the bottom of that abyss. When all the work was done, I suddenly remembered that I was not the only one waiting for my mother to come home from that trip. Hannah. Poor Hannah. I was thinking of how I could tell her about mom's death. I thought it was impossible. I was 20, I was an adult, and I was so depressed about it. I couldn't imagine what would happen to a 10 years old girl when she heard such terrible news. It would destroy her. I couldn't let my sister fall into that abyss with me. I decided that Hannah wasn't ready for that kind of information, so I had to wait and prepare her for it. That meant I would have to lie to her for a while.


I couldn't drop out of college and go home, so I had to find guardians for Hannah. I came home for a couple of days to deal with it. I told Hannah that mom was supposed to be home soon, but in the meantime, I was secretly talking with mom's friends. I told them everything and asked for help. They were very close to my mother, and grieved for her too. They couldn't leave a little girl in the lurch so they agreed to be my sister's guardians. We kept it a secret, and Hannah wasn't supposed to know about it. I was glad that there were people who were willing to help.