Please Listen to Music While Reading

She stood with her five-year-old daughter at the airport, tearing up as she helped her daughter hold the Welcome Home sign. She smiled at her daughter and her daughter smiled back and said, "I'm so excited for Daddy to get here!" Her Mother smiled once again. "Me too sweetie."

They waited for him to show up. It has been hours, and the airport was about to close. "Where's Daddy?" Her daughter asked.

 That's when both she and her daughter had the same thought. 

"Is Daddy... alright?" Her daughter asked. 

She and her mother stared at the opening of the plane coming from Iraq. 

"I don't know." Her mother said.

Just then, an older man dressed in army equipment walked over to the mother and her daughter. He handed the mothers daughter a Panoramio (a flower from Iraq his daughter wanted), and her mother a wedding ring and an army cap.

"He told me to give these to you. To tell you that he loves you and will always be with you. Those were his last words. I'm so sorry."

Then, the man nodded and walked away, as the mother and her daughter stared at their gifts.

The five-year-old daughter watched her mother fall onto her knees and cry. She hugged her mother as hard as she could and once again said, "Mommy, are you alright? Where's Daddy?" 

The mother looked up at her daughter.

"Sweetie, Daddy is in a better place now." 

Her daughter smiled.

"Where? Like Disneyland? Or maybe that really pretty flower garden we saw on t.v!"

Her mother smiled, tears running down her face.

"No, sweetie, Daddy is in Heaven."

Her daughter went silent. 

"You mean... Daddy's... dead?" 

Her daughter started to cry.

They sat in the middle of the airport, kneeling on the ground, as they hugged each other and cried. 

"We'll see him soon sweetie, it's going to be fine, alright? Daddy will always be in our hearts."

They sat there, listening to the traffic in the distance, and watching as all the lights around them started to turn off.