Have you ever lost a parent? Some of you might say no, but for some of you if you are like me, the answer might be yes.

I lost my dad on September 4, 2000, and to be honest with you, it was no joke. I felt like I had a hard knock life with nobody to lean on. I was like a dead flower. A flower grows with full colors when it is beautifully bloomed and full of life, but when you cut it and try to take it to your house it dies within a day. You look at it and it's dry and if you touch it it cracks.

I'm expressing myself this way because I'm trying to be as real as I can be. My father was in and out of my life like a blue moon enters and leaves the sky. I always loved him, but for most of my life I didn't live with him and I would get whupped if I cried for him. I was his little girl and he was my big dude.

In 1995 I finally moved in with him. I didn't know what it was going to be like but I had no other choice than to expect what was to come. He had an alcohol problem but he had put to the side when I started living with him.

Two years later he started drinking again and things started to get wild. Besides arguments, he started bothering me a lot. He would knock on my door to give me fruits or crackers or something, or he would call me to the living room to look at me and laugh. Who was to say what he would do next, he was always full of surprises. He started drinking more and more everyday. The more he drank the more arguments there were, and the more arguments, the more hatred built up. Death was always on my mind every time I got notice that he was in the hospital or that he had caught a seizure.

On September 4, 2000 at 9:30 in the morning, my best friend Marlyne, her father, her brother and his girlfriend whom I also considered family, and I were on our way to Pennsylvania to go school shopping. When we arrived three hours later, we decided to go to her grandmother's house to say hi but there was an emergency back in the house in New York. When Marlyne's dad called back to the house he spoke with her mother. On the phone with her, he looked over at me and said "Magaly, your dad's in the hospital".

I felt as if a demon got in me because I had to leave the house. I didn't know my way around Pennsylvania, but I just kept walking to I don't know where anyway. A little while later I felt someone hug me. It was her dad and he said, "you gotta be strong, but I have to tell you the truth. Your father died." I felt my heart yanked from my chest. I had no other way to let out the pain but to scream, so I did. I got back home and reunited with the family, but that was the worst feeling ever because as much as I didn't want to believe it, by the look on everybody's faces I knew it was true.

There was nothing I could do but to accept it and but I still have problems doing it. When I look back at my entire life, that moment has been the biggest obstacle I've ever had to face. Although he used to do his thing, overall my father was a good person who always wanted the family together. The problem was he could never have it his way until he died.

I know a lot of people may wonder why I would want to make this public, but many people don't know what it feels like to have a parent taken away from them and by reading this still may not. But you might now at least have an idea. What is important is that today you may have your parents but within a few hours they may be gone. You may not see it that way, because I was just as blind. But this experience was my reality check. Do what you have to do.

But don't take your loved ones for granted. GOD works in mysterious ways and not always according to your plans. Your parents aren't given to you forever so if you have them, take care of them. It wont hurt to show them you love them. Don't put up a front or hesitate to spend some quality time with them. It's okay to be blind just not from both eyes, because you might just lose sight of what's important.