Taken

Cancer. It's a killer. Doesn't quite seem real does it? Doesn't seem real until its latest victim is flooding memories back to you. I didn't know him. Not well anyway. We had spoken a few times, and I could point him out at a distance. I knew he had cancer, everyone did, but still no body thought it was that bad. When I found out he had died, it was a shock.

Soon the story was spreading round like wildfire, everyone crying, sobbing even. Yet I stayed in my shell, listening quietly to something that sounded so unreal, so cruel. I heard how his family knew he was going to die, how much chemotherapy he had had. How much time he had spent in the hospital. And yet we had carried on, expecting him to come back after the holidays. He was still in hospital. By this point his cancer was controlling him, like a puppet, its master a cruel demon who commands him to die before his very knees. His mum took him home that day, just so he could be at home.

He died in his mothers arms later that day, so peaceful, yet in so much pain. No body could imagine him suffering that badly. He was an angel, suffering in silence. Whenever I saw him he always had a smile to see, his voice containing no evidence of the disease. He was so light hearted and free that everyone seemed to think it would go away.

Cancer takes many lives, some old but some young and nobody thinks it can until your looking at it with your own eyes. It comes as a cold wave when you realise someone is falling apart and no one can save it. We found out we could all get along the first day back. All of us, all of his year standing there in silence.

To think of the little angel we lost. A mass of purple uniforms huddled together, the only sound an occasional sob. Everyone clapped at the end, to show respect of how hard he fought, how hard anyone fights. But sadly fighting a lost cause gets nobody anywhere.

No body thinks of people dying, on the news it seems like a million miles away, a different universe. But when you find out someone you know isn't here, it makes me cherish life so much more. So what does it matter? Having all the latest items? when really the good things in life come from family and friends, being able to learn, have experiences and laughs. Death is a thing we will all have to face at one point, but while it is a long way away we should ignore what is seen as cool because it doesn't actually matter.

What matters is a little angel has been taken, and I know he is probably watching all of us. Watching our quarrels and disagreements and trying to remember those he had whilst with us. And when we think he has gone, he hasn't. He is still with us, in our hearts.

We can look back and remember all the times we had with him, the times we saw him in the corridor and his smile that shined across the playground. He was a fighting angel and he still is. What we can do is look him and think, I am proud to know him, to have met him. Because what we have learnt is that challenges shouldn't keep you down. You should fight until you can't. Always believe in miracles.

I will remember him forever, and so will my year because he is a special little angel and always has been. No body deserves to die young especially not him but I know he isn't lost. His soul may be reborn into another body, and some day we may meet him. But until that day I stand in respect for him.

Blake Melbourne, 29th December 1996 - 10th September 2011

Rest In Peace xxx