Gone too Soon: Rest in Peace Lydia

She was with us. Only for a moment. For she was gone too soon.
She was always smiling; she made us all feel happy, and we never forgot to tell her how she brought joy in our midst.

Lydia had gone through a lot. Clinical depression makes one go through a lot. Often times you are not at liberty to choose how you feel. When the Blues come, they give no warning.

The voices; those unwelcome voices torment you to the core. They do not even ask for permission to invade your Soul. They force their way in. Ever the unwelcome visitor.

And the voices tell you many things; they tell you many bad things. The voices say you are worthless; hopeless; that actually you are better dead than alive.

The voices told Lydia these things and more. She battled them. This I know because she shared with us. Her support group. The voices told her she was better dead. She almost listened to this intruding visitor. Five times she almost listened.

However, each time she bounced back. Beaten yes, but willing to live one more day.

When she told us all this, we cried; we hugged her. We told her we were family. Some of us had heard the same voices; telling us the same things she heard for most of the past nine years.

And Lydia no longer felt alone. She started coming back; rising; and she was there; with that smile on her face; and she told us she finally was stumbling on those voices. Thanks to Michael-whose story brought her back from the precipice. She told us she was stumbling on those voices; they were not chaining her anymore. And so we always looked to be with Lydia for our bi-weekly meetings.

But Lydia won’t be coming for the next meeting.

Rest in Peace Dear Friend. You were gone too soon.

But I gladly say that your last days, they were happy days. Lydia was happy in her last days.

We may not know how much she suffered at the moment she called it off; but we are glad to say that the last time she sat with us, Lydia smiled. Lydia was happy.