I'd been making desicions for days. I picked out the dress Bailey would wear forever-a black slinky one- innapropriate- that she loved. I chose a sweater to go over it, earrings, bracelet, necklace, her most beloved strappy sandals. I collected her makeup to give to the funeral director with a recent photo- I thought it would be me that would dress her; I didn't think a strange man should see her nakedtouch her bodyshave her legsapply her lipstickbut that's what happened all the same. I helped Gram pick out the casket, the plot at the cemetery. I changed a few linesin the obituary that Big composed. I wrote on a piece of paper what I thoughtshould go on the headstone. I did all this without uttering a word. Not one word, for days, until I saw Bailey before the funeraland lost my mind. I hadn't realized that when people say so-and-sosnappedthat's what actually happens- I started shaking her- I thought I could wake her upand get her the hell out of that box. When she didn't wake, I screamed: Talk to me. Big swooped me up in his arms, carried me out of the room, the church, into the slamming rain, and down to the creekwhere we sobbed togetherunder the black coat he held over our headsto protect us from the weather. Jandy Nelson
Though there had yet to be a victor in this great war that had begun almost three years ago, Maurice had written to her that they had, all of them, on all sides, lost their freedom. Freedom to think hopefully of the future.
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Jacqueline Winspear
They are nothing but a broken bones crawling in the shadow of the past.
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Bilal
The air around her was cool lately, as if she were creating a vacuum with her unhappiness.
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Sarah Addison Allen
She was a prism through which sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum.
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Jonathan Safran Foer
…He sounded as though he had just seen The Pokey Little Puppy meet the business end of The Little Engine That Could.
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Thomm Quackenbush
More Quotes By Jandy Nelson
My sister will die over and over again for the rest of my life. Grief is forever. It doesn't go away; it becomes a part of you, step for step, breath for breath. I will never stop grieving Bailey because I will never stop loving...
When people fall in love, they burst into flames.
People die, I think, but your relationship with them doesn't. It continues and is ever-changing.
Remember how it was when we kissed? Armfuls and armfuls of light thrown right at us. A rope dropping down from the sky. How can the word love and the word life even fit in the mouth?
Life's a freaking mess. In fact, I'm going to tell Sarah we need to start a new philosophical movement: messessentialism instead of existentialism: For those who revel in the essential mess that is life. Because Gram's right, there's not one truth ever, just a bunch...
