“Thank you darling.”
Her mother’s frail fingers closed together around the piece of paper in the girl’s hand. It was bursting with colour. Ever since her small fingers had been able to hold a pencil, she had been drawing. Now, at ten years old, her pictures held a perfect world, full of incredible detail.
Her mother looked across at her daughter, and had to work hard to stop the tears from trickling down her pale face. She wouldn’t be alive for much longer, and couldn’t bear to think of her daughter’s life without her.

“What’s for tea, Dad?” the girl asked, skipping merrily into the room where her father was sitting.
“I’ll sort it out soon,” his head hardly lifted as he spoke, “why don’t you go and draw another picture?” he said dully. The anxiety in his voice was clear, and his unhappy expression worried the girl. She sat down at the table with her pencils and began to draw. Soon, the page came to life, and images of sea creatures were spilling off it. The dazzling sun reflected on the sapphire blue sea, and there were all kinds of fish, from blood red to a sort of emerald green. Seagulls were circling in the summer sky, and everything was almost perfect.
“Are you going to colour in the sky?” her father asked when she presented it to him.
“No,” she replied, with a slightly perturbed expression on her face, “it wants to be white today.”
Her father looked at her sad, small face, and gave a sigh. It was clear to him that the girl was finding her mothers illness upsetting, but he was clueless when he tried to think of a way to cheer his daughter up.
“Shall I go and give this to Mum?” he asked, placing his hand on her shoulder.
“Yes please Dad, and tell her I love her,” the girl replied quietly.

As he pushed open the door to his wife’s room, he took a deep breath. He had to hold back the tears for her sake; it wasn’t fair to cry. His stomach did an almightly somersault when he saw her. She was lying motionless on the bed, her skin as white as snow and her lips almost grey. His fingers trembled as he picked up the phone.
“Hello? Yes, we need an ambulance.”

“When will Mum be back?” the girl asked at breakfast.
“I don’t know love,” her dad replied, “she’s just gone for a bit of a rest in the hospital, but remember she’ll be back soon, and she loves you.” he wiped his eyes before continuing, “we could go and see her tonight if you like,” he paused for a moment, “why don’t you draw her one of your pictures for her? You know she’d love that.”
“Ok Dad.” She gave a small smile, “I’ll start it right now.”
He looked at his daughter and his heart began to break. Childhood was supposed to be innocent, painless. The only thing she should be worrying about was who had the best trainers, or who didn’t want to be friends with her.

“Mum, are you ok?”
She didn’t answer.
“Mum’s sleeping,” Dad said, his voice slightly more forced than normal. As the girl placed her picture on her mother’s bed, her Dad felt a tear roll down his cheek. His eye fell on the picture, which was black and white, apart from the dazzling sun. He looked at his daughter, bent down, and kissed her on the cheek.
“Can you come outside for a moment?” said a consultant who seemed to have appeared from nowhere. They went outside and shut the door gently.
“Mum?” the girl was beginning to get worried. This was nothing like the strong mum who used to look after her. She walked over to her and felt her cheek. It was warm, but only just.
“I love you Mum,” she kissed her mother on the forehead, and her picture became smudged as a tear fell on it. All of a sudden, an alarm started to ring, and the girl was taken from the room as people crowded around her Mum’s bed. Her Dad took her hand, looked into her eyes, and her world was shattered.

* * *

Over two hundred eyes were looking at her while she was in the church. She was the girl with no mother. She looked at her dad and noticed that he was very pale. She took his big hand in hers, and he smiled down at her.
“You know, just because Mum is gone from our world doesn’t mean that she’s gone from our hearts,” he said, looking into her eyes.
“I know Dad, and I can feel her smiling at me,” she told him.

It was silent as the girl stepped to the front.
“I wanted to tell you all about my Mum,” she began, “my Mum was the greatest person in my life, and I love her so much. But now that she’s gone I don’t know what I can do without her.”
She stepped down to her seat and picked up a piece of paper.
“This is for my Mum,” she explained to the church full of people. She placed the drawing by her mum’s coffin, and the room was filled with unbearable heartache. The girl threw herself into her dad’s outstretched arms while everybody else stared at the colourless picture before them.

Her last picture.