Last Breath
Last Breath
Ever since my daughter Rachel’s death, I feel as if it has been drifting away my 30 year marriage with Franklin. I have myself to blame because, a week after her funeral I ordered a gravestone with mine and Franklins names and birthdays next to hers without discussing it with him first. At first I thought Rachel was just depressed like any other teenager at her age; however, I was unaware that the boy Rachel was talking to for the past months she met online. It all began May 18, 2005 Rachel was sixteen; we lived in a small suburb in Illinois. Rachel was a great student, always involved in school, was an athlete, and was always home by 8pm. That afternoon after she got out of school she asked me for permission to go to the mall with her girlfriends to just talk. Rachel was actually going to the mall to meet up with Kevin; Kevin was her online boyfriend. She was going to meet him for the first time in person after months talking to him online. Rachel was unaware of how dangerous and easy it can be for someone to pretend to be someone else online. She then found out that Kevin wasn’t the seventeen year old he claimed to be, he was actually twenty-five and the opposite of what he said he was. He offered her to still go on their date that they had planned for months, she gave him a chance because she was scared and forced to get in the car with him. Week by week Rachel started talking back to us, would always want time alone; she became a rebel and would never ask for permission. Frank and I were unaware of what was going on and decided to just give her some space and that when she would decide to; she would talk to us on her own. One night I woke up to a noise I heard in the living room as I was walking I saw Rachel sneaking out the house and realized she got in the car with an older man. My husband was asleep so I decided to go get her and bring her home before he found out about her sneaking out. They were parked about two houses away and
Ever since my daughter Rachel’s death, I feel as if it has been drifting away my 30 year marriage with Franklin. I have myself to blame because, a week after her funeral I ordered a gravestone with mine and Franklins names and birthdays next to hers without discussing it with him first. At first I thought Rachel was just depressed like any other teenager at her age; however, I was unaware that the boy Rachel was talking to for the past months she met online. It all began May 18, 2005 Rachel was sixteen; we lived in a small suburb in Illinois. Rachel was a great student, always involved in school, was an athlete, and was always home by 8pm. That afternoon after she got out of school she asked me for permission to go to the mall with her girlfriends to just talk. Rachel was actually going to the mall to meet up with Kevin; Kevin was her online boyfriend. She was going to meet him for the first time in person after months talking to him online. Rachel was unaware of how dangerous and easy it can be for someone to pretend to be someone else online. She then found out that Kevin wasn’t the seventeen year old he claimed to be, he was actually twenty-five and the opposite of what he said he was. He offered her to still go on their date that they had planned for months, she gave him a chance because she was scared and forced to get in the car with him. Week by week Rachel started talking back to us, would always want time alone; she became a rebel and would never ask for permission. Frank and I were unaware of what was going on and decided to just give her some space and that when she would decide to; she would talk to us on her own. One night I woke up to a noise I heard in the living room as I was walking I saw Rachel sneaking out the house and realized she got in the car with an older man. My husband was asleep so I decided to go get her and bring her home before he found out about her sneaking out. They were parked about two houses away and