The Weight of Life — Whitney Barbetti

Mila “Don't let go.” Those were my first words to him, as I hung over the side of a London bridge. The words I would soon say again, in a moment that didn't involve bridges, but something much more fragile: my heart. He held onto me for three weeks, in a time when I needed to be held. Needed to connect to someone who understood how loss tunneled unrepentantly through the fabric of your soul. Although he said he'd stay, we both knew he wouldn't. I had already survived one loss -- I didn't know if I'd survive another. Ames She spun into my life like a tornado of smiles and chatter and everything else I'd long avoided, with a persistence that I admired, albeit begrudgingly. She broke down each neat wall I'd constructed without even trying. Her presence alone caused me to remember what it felt like to smile, to look forward to what the day would bring. But it was only supposed to last three weeks. “Don't let go,” she'd pleaded. I'd promised her I wouldn't -- but I would. I didn't have a choice.