How does one react when a loved one passes away? No one actually knows the trauma that I faced as a child when going through the incomprehensible reality of death.
             Tuesday, June 19, 1990, it was the last day of school, and the beginning of a long hot summer. My brother Abel and I were very excited when the school bell rang. We met on school grounds in order to walk home together. Now as I recall Abel told me "I will always be with you and I love you no matter what happens between us". He said those words as if he had foreseen what was going to happen just hours later. I took his words naturally and didn't give it much thought. Today these words give me much comfort. We got home, ate our snacks, changed clothes and as I gathered my dolls, he grabbed his bike and we went our separate ways.
             Hours passed and soon it was time to go back home. I got home but my brother Abel wasn't there. I wasn't disturbed since he would sometimes spend more time at his friend's house. It was getting close to my bedtime so I decided to take a bath. While I was in the bath, my mom arrived home from work. She asked me how everything was going and where my brother Abel was. I told her he might be over his friend Calvin's house. She called his house and Abel wasn't there. Moments passed, there was a knock on the door, and we assumed it was Abel, but we were wrong. It was one of Abel's friends mother informing us of the tragic accident, Abel had fallen into a canal and drowned. When I heard those words I really didn't understand the meaning of death, I thought, it couldn't be true; he was with me only a few hours ago.
             The next few days were the worst days of my life. I witnessed my brother's lifeless body taken out of the canal and being placed on a stretcher. I felt bizarre, witnessing strangers crying for my brother and I was just standing there motionless. I was
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