The following short story is a prose adaptation of my latest book of poetry, In Life There Is No Escape, which is about a person who has lost everything and is unable to find comfort even in death.
In Life There Is No Escape is available from Amazon.com in paperback and as an ebook. It's also part of Kindle Unlimited.
I was in my forties when my parents died, and I couldn't understand how the two people who loved me most in life were gone. As I grappled with this devastating event, my wife was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and within months she passed away.
But life wasn't done with me yet.
The following year my son Jimmy died in a car accident. A few months later, my daughter Maria became sick with an infection and the doctors told me it was incurable. All I could do was make her comfortable until she passed.
It didn't end there. As the years passed, I suffered more loss. Friends, family, and neighbors all passed away. My world crumbled before me.
Falling into a deep depression, I barely functioned.
I was let go from my job and everywhere I turned, people looked at me as someone who was cursed. I was a pariah, and no one wanted to employ me, talk to me, much less touch me. I became homeless and wandered the streets.
I finally decided to end my life, but every attempt I made failed, which made me believe that even God had abandoned me. All those years I had prayed at his altar were for naught.
With absolutely nothing left, I fell into madness.
Now all I can do is bemoan my existence and pray that one day it comes to an end.