Lake Geneva..

"All I want to do is paint".. said Samantha as her mother was buying her new point shoes for ballet. "You'll do what I want you to do" said her mother. This wasn't the first time Sam was pushed into doing something she didn't want to do. Her father does the same thing, only it's lacrosse. Sam's father played lacrosse in college and wanted his daughter to follow in his foot steps. Not once did her parents ever listen to what Sam truly wanted to do.. Paint. There was no escape from her parents high expectations, until in the summer when Sam and her parents traveled to Switzerland to their cabin by Geneva Lake. At the crack of dawn Sam would rush out to her parents dock, sit and look into the lake; staring at her reflection. This is the one place where she could escape her insecurities, this was the only place where she could paint without her parents yelling at her to go to dance practice, or to lacrosse try-outs. Until one day Sam collapsed near the lake. She was taken to the hospital immediately, then her parents recieved the news they weren't expecting. " I am very sorry to tell you this but you're daughter has Leukemia.. we will need to start her on kemo therapy right away. We will do whatever it takes to help her, but this is a terminal cancer. I am very sorry" It was as if a ton of bricks fell onto Sam's parents. They never thought that anything would happen to their little girl. After hearing of their daughters health they added an art studio right next to Lake Geneva where Sam could do all of the painting she wanted. Never in her whole life had Sam been this happy, for once in her life her parents embraced her artistic talent and looked at all of her paintings. Sam went on to paint many more fascinating pictures, until a year later Sam's health declined rapidly and passed away. Her parents were selling their cabin, it was the last place they had been with their only child and the memories it brought was too much. One day as sam's mother was cleaning the art studio she had made for her daughter she found Sam's very last painting. It was a self portrait of Sam staring at her reflection in the lake. Her mother fell to the ground, overwhelmed with misery and sorrow. Never had she ever even contemplating out living her own child. She wished for years to trade her daughters place. Every night she said the same prayer " please God.. take me, she was just a little girl.." The same prayer was said every night for three years, until Sam's father had a surprise for his misery struck wife. " I lost a child too, I lost my only born and my baby. I wish she was here to dear, but instead of dwelling on Sam's death, we need to celebrate her life." said sam's father. " I have a little surprise for you.." Sam's father led his wife to the only empty room in their house, he had turned this spare bedroom into an art room, where he had hung all of Sam's paintings and portraits. " This is what I want to come to whenever I'm having one of those days where losing my only daughter is the only thing I think about" said Sam's father. " There is never a second that goes by where I don't think about her, I am always thinking about her. We need to celebrate her life" "Okay.." said Sam's mother. " I know the best way to" Sam's parents started a charity to help kids who had been diagnosed with Leukemia along with other terminal cancers. " Every kid should live their dream, to do whatever their passion is, to be who they were born to be. And finally, to lead a legacy." Sam's parents traveled the world speaking at conferences, always saying the same speech. " Every year since our daughter Sam was born we traveled to our cabin on the edge of Lake Geneva in Switzerland.. This was also the last place we ever saw and held our little girl. We always pushed her to do what we wanted her to do. Not thinking about what she really wanted to do, until Sam was diagnosed Leukemia. That was the worst day of our life. We learned from Sam just how precious life is and it isn't very long. You need to live your dream and your passion. Never did we ever think of out living our only child. But things happen for a reason, we love to feel pain, and we try to only fail. But it is never too late to correct mistakes you've made, there is always time for forgiveness, but the first step in forgiving, is forgiving yourself.."