Justine

“I’ve been hearing his voice so clearly not just because I want to survive, but because in a very real way, he still lives in the deepest parts of my mind and body that he shaped by loving me so long and so well. Every conversation, every shared silence, every night I tucked myself against him before bed—all of it is recorded at the most intimate, cellular level. I haven’t been imagining him. I’ve been keeping him with me everywhere I go, so deeply that his voice can still speak to me, urging me to fight, begging me to keep going, even warning me to play dead, asking me to stay and survive in hopes that I’ll find the sun again somehow after the darkness.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, The Last to Drown

“So many beautiful, terrible things. So much fear and kindness and grief and love. There’s no choosing among them. Only living through all of it. And choosing to stay.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, The Last to Drown