When I was just a boy I had a fairly large wart on the middle finger of my left hand. When I met my Aunt Liz, who was visiting home from America, she saw the wart and immediately made me the offer to buy it from me. Her offer was a penny, and since I wasn’t fond of the wart I thought this a fair price and accepted. She took the penny, rubbed it on my wart before placing it in my hand and told that my wart would soon be gone. Even at a young age I was a little dubious about the transaction, but sure enough, over the next few weeks the wart faded and was soon gone. Just like magic.
When I was a child that was Liz: Magic. She sang, danced, did cartwheels and back flips and would say and do things that no one else would dare to. When she was in a room everybody laughed and was happy and she was the centre of attention. She was my crazy aunt Liz and when you’re still small that seems just fine, even fun.
When I got older I would start to notice things. The singing and dancing would stop being as funny when put in context of surroundings and the forthrightness would begin to cause concern. But that was Liz, “that’s just our Liz, she’s mad but that’s just who she is” we would all, including me, say at one time of another; words to mask worry and false reason in the face of uncertainty.
Liz was ill. An illness that most do not fully comprehend and many cannot face. With the all singing and all dancing highs would come suffocating lows, and as time went on the highs and good times would grow shorter and shorter until Liz felt she could not suffer the devastating lows any longer. This is the cost of magic.
I wish there was more that could have been said and done, but nothing said or done could help her. Her mind was her enemy and the enemy was too strong to defeat. There was nothing anyone could have done. Nothing. These words are the absolute truth, logically I know that, but I don’t think any of us are ready to accept that truth just yet.
Goodbye Liz, you were a good and kind person and I love you. Your fight is over. You can rest.
Remember me with smiles not tears, For all the joy through all the years, ..."Don't dwell on thoughts that cause you pain, We'll see each other once again, I am at peace, try to believe, It was my time, I had to leave...
- Unknown