We often postpone checking on the people we love, thinking there will always be another day.
I have learned this lesson in one of the hardest ways possible.
As someone who hardly places a call unless there's something we have to discuss.
This doesn't mean that don't have my loved ones in my heart.
I'd rather mutter a silent prayer whenever they cross my mind. Most of the time, it's my hubby that will ask me when last I talked my mom. I wasn't like this, but it's a story for another day.
And somehow, she never gets tired of calling me herself.
So, some months ago,I kept postponing calling my mother-in-law. It wasn't because I didn't care about her. I simply kept thinking there would be another time to call and have a proper conversation with her.
Then, one evening, she called my husband.
I knew she was the one calling, but I didn't speak with her. The more reason I didn't speak with her was that,my husband had promised he would call her the following morning, and somehow, that felt reassuring. I thought, “I'll talk to her tomorrow then.”
The tomorrow seemed certain.
But unfortunately, it wasn't.
The morning we were supposed to call her, we received a devastating call that she has passed away.
Just like that, the conversation I thought I could have the next morning became a conversation that would never happen.
I still think about it sometimes.
I think about how easily I could have collected the phone from hubby to at least tell her good evening that evening. Or a simple “Hello, Mama, how are you? It wouldn't have taken more than a few minutes.
But I kept postponing it.
And now, I live with the regret of knowing that the opportunity will never come again.
Grief has a way of teaching us that tomorrow is not a promise. Sometimes, the people we intend to call tomorrow will no longer be here when tomorrow comes.
I wish I had known that it would be our last opportunity.
I wish I had said that hello.
But life doesn't give us the chance to rewrite certain moments. All we can do is carry the lesson forward.
So, if there is someone you've been meaning to check on, call them.
If you've been saying, “I'll call later,” maybe call now.
Send the message. Ask how they are. Have the conversation.
Because sometimes, “later” comes.
And sometimes, heartbreakingly, it doesn't.
Learn from my mistake!