The life of my family had finally reached the pinnacle of happiness. Hope had asked Grace to marry her. Grace of course said yes. Together, they became the most wonderful moms to little Riley: who of course was turning out to become a little genius like Hope was at a young age. Me and Josh were still busy doing our respective jobs, but considering we were still barely fifty, we lived with the jovial attitude that we still had so much life ahead of us. Then one day I got call from Josh's workplace. He had fallen on the job having seizure like symptoms and had been sent immediately to the hospital. I quickly went to the hospital to find Josh in decent spirits. But then through an MRI test he soon after took, we received the shocking news. Josh had a brain tumor and stage 4 cancer. Meaning it was quite possible... Josh only had a short time left to live. The news hit me like a punch in the gut. I was going to lose my husband, and there was seemingly nothing I could do.

Fortunately Josh was not gone yet. I spent hours upon hours, days upon days in that hospital with my husband. Just talking about our feelings and Josh discussing what was to happen after he was gone. I felt like just falling apart, but then Josh reminded me that I had been through many painful hardships before and gotten through them. He even encouraged me to write them all down in a book. I first wrote in great depth about everything that went through my mind when Riley died, then the mixed feelings I experienced when I was first pregnant. After that I wrote about the ups and down I experienced during parenting. From finding the right school for Hope, to awkwardly talking about sex with her, to encouraging her to take initiative with opening up about her feelings to Hope. And of course I ended it with the painful events we experienced that followed after Hope was raped, along with what I was experiencing now. Resulting in what you all are reading now. This online book I created called: The Day My Best Friend Died (And Beyond) was something my husband Josh encouraged me to make. A sort of autobiography of my life. But not to discuss every detail of my life. But rather to discuss all of the pain and hardships that came through my greatest trials in life. And you know what? Despite how hard they all were, I did get through them all. And so will all of you. I'm not telling any of you all that every morning will get better. But one day, you will experience more good mornings than bad ones. I'm not saying you won't feel some kind of pain when you think back on painful memories. I always experience pain when I go back to the day my best friend Riley died. But I turned all of my painful experiences into growth experiences. I learned from my mistakes, and learned to take some kind of good out of every bad circumstance that surrounded me. I did it, and I know any one can too now.

On November 8th, my husband Joshua Matthews died. I was left a widow, but I wasn't left with just sadness. I was left with the memories of a nearly thirty year long romance I had with the greatest man I ever knew. I was left with all of the memories I had of Josh in which he encouraged me to be stronger. And I still had the rest of my family that me and Josh had started together. An amazing daughter, daughter in law, and granddaughter whom I wouldn't trade for the world. I may have hated many parts of the journey that got me to where I am, but if I was asked to go through it all again in order to re-obtain what I have now, I would do it in a heart beat. Thank you all for reading my story.

THE END (FOR NOW)

*Author's Long Note - So is this end of this series? Only time will tell. If there's enough demand, lots of views, and maybe some good suggestions from readers, I will continue the series. But as of now: Thank you to everybody who showed support to this amazing tale of mine. I think Maya in character in this chapter sums up why I made this series in the first place. I won't go into all of the details but despite some chapters of this series being pure fiction, other parts were based off things that had happened to me, while other parts were based off things that happened to people I knew. To be completely honest, I made up this series as I went along. I finished each chapter not knowing what was going to happen next. But with each chapter, my hope was to tell a realistic story about real things that do happen to real people. I wrote this way so that people who have experienced these hardships know they're not alone, and so that others can have an idea of what to do if they experience similar hardships or better know how to talk to/help others that go through similar hardships one day in the future. This series meant so much to me, and I'm happy so many of you all enjoyed it. Thanks for reading.