They were gentle. Loving. Almost too perfect. But when Erika looks back on that morning, she can’t shake the memory of the last thing Charlie said before stepping out the door.
It was just ten simple words — not fearful, not sad. But there was something in his tone, a quiet warmth that felt different, almost like a goodbye that was never spoken out loud. Erika remembers feeling a strange uneasiness for a brief moment, but she brushed it off and carried on with her day.
Until the news came.
Now, sitting silently in her living room, Erika hears those words again and again in her mind. Each one carries a new weight, as though he somehow knew what was coming — or as though fate had chosen that exact moment to put those words in his mouth.
Erika says the family is still trying to make sense of it all. “We talk about that morning every single day,” she says softly. “It breaks my heart, but I’m also grateful — because at least I have that final moment to hold onto forever.”
Sometimes the simplest words become the most hauntingly beautiful memories. For Erika, those ten words will forever connect her to the last morning when everything was still whole.