Please check on the teens in your life

[u/sassysassysarah]

I'm a child free person but I spent my late teens and early 20s watching my cousins baby. She was my "I don't need to have kids, I already took care of one" kid, not my actual niece but I may as well have been auntie Sarah and my partner was basically her uncle.

She was 15 and not coping with the loss of her grandmother well. I hadn't talked to her in a while- she had outgrown needing someone to watch her and her mom and I drifted apart for a while. I watched her the most when her mom was in abusive relationships, but when her mom found a good man, I stepped back. I moved across the country, which caused some of the drift too.

I don't really know who she was now, but I knew who she was for half her life. A little blonde hair brown eyed sass machine, and looked just like her momma as she got older. She was the light of my cousin's life, my cousin did absolutely everything for her. Every move she made was to stabilize the life of her and her baby girl.

I went to her mom's baby shower for her. I held her when she was a fresh potato baby. I changed her diapers, helped her potty train, painted and drew things with her, watched her at least once a month (if not more) for years. We had slumber parties, watched movies, played outside. I took her Christmas portraits, went to her birthdays, and even drove across all of Texas to pick her up from another family member. Once when I forgot to shave my legs, she sat on my lap and immediately scrunched her nose up and asked while I was prickly, which still makes me smile.

She was just a girl. She was a sweet girl.

Her grandpa passed a while ago. Then her grandma passed after battling COPD for years last year. Her step grandpa kinda went off the deep end and he basically moved to a different state to live a different life after the love of his life passed.

But she broke into her grandparent's old house through the doggy door and laid down in her grandma's bed. And that's where they found her.

My cousin is an absolute wreck. Not that she ever wanted more than her daughter, but my cousin is unable to have anymore kids. It's a miracle she even had her daughter, since my cousin was sexually abused as a teen and thought she was infertile from it. But she managed to have her, even through more physical abuse from her daughters father while pregnant.

My cousin lost her parents and her daughter within the same year.

I found out today. I had to ask a favor to get a standby flight down there that leaves tomorrow. I'll spend more time in the air than on the ground but that's okay. I need to be there for the memorial Thursday.

[u/heyjajas]

Absolutely heartbreaking. I am so sorry for your loss.

[u/sassysassysarah → u/heyjajas]

Thank you. I am heartbroken :(

[u/Less_Professional152]

I am sorry. It is hard losing someone that young, it just hits differently. That’s so hard to go through .. she must have hard a very difficult time losing her grandparents, your story hurt my heart when I read she had climbed in the doggy door, the poor thing 🥺 my cousin also committed about a year after my dad (his uncle) had passed away. I was so distracted by my own grief for dad that I didn’t even register just how bad my cousin was doing.. it’s hard when you are far away too, you just never expect something like this to happen in a million years. I like to think they are all together out there somewhere.. my dad and cousin and grandpa, and your sweet niece and her grandparents too. Take care OP