And so I did

There was a time she couldn't wait to show me everything about her life. I'll never forget the day she took me to the attic and dragged out box after box of her childhood memories; her proudest achievements from school, drawings and finger paintings, even poems she wrote for grandma. I thought to myself, what a gift it was to experience the view beyond the door of her soul. And as we dug through the boxes and found a baby picture of me with the innocent smile, sat on her lap, I felt her moving farther and farther from me. She became deathly quite and I could see with every item I pulled out, her gaze became more focused on the door. As the sun began to set, the attic became cold, too cold. I looked at her, wondering if she would be the first to stand, but she didn't. She sat stoic, as if to say, leave me, let me freeze. And so I did.