To See You Laugh like That

My cousin who at the time was 6 months old while I myself was fifteen years old used to go my aunt’s house to visit her. “Chique” is what we call her; she was born with a clef pallet and later on developed bronco pneumonia. Since the day she was born till 6 months after she was a happy baby. However, 6 months later she was in and out of the hospital for weeks and weeks. Sometimes because she had a fever, sometimes because she can’t breathe the doctor couldn’t figure out why? There were plenty of times where she would cry and cry all day and night. Sometimes I would see my aunt get frustrated not because her baby is crying but because she can’t do anything to make it stop. I remember my aunt holding her baby and gently asking her why are you crying? What’s wrong? Can you tell me? At times she would stop crying, sometimes till she falls asleep. Months have passed she was doing ok, she was still in and out of the hospitals and at home she had to take medication. She developed bronco pneumonia, therefore, to ease the breathing she was put on a nebulizer. December 12 I was at my grandmother’s house and we received a call from my aunt’s sister in law saying we should come over quick something happened and my aunt was in distress. When we went over to auntie’s house, as soon as we got close to the door, my aunt came running towards my grandmother. She fell on her knees and started to lose it. My aunt was crying like I’ve never seen her before. I saw her give birth to one of her children and she was in pain but she didn’t cry like that. Few hours later there was as I recall maybe three or four men holding a white coffin, it was really tiny.

2 days before Chiques 1st birthday, she went to heaven and left us. She died of acute bronco pneumonia, with her clef pallet it made it worse for her to breath. One time I was watching her, I was holding her in my arms trying to put her to sleep, and she dare not to, so I put her in the hammock