Taste of Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul III Read Online Free PDF Page B

live without her to help me through my life? Don’t take her away from my father and me!” My tears and sobs began to fade away, as the dripping of my mother’s IV hypnotized me into a restless sleep.
    â€¢ • • •
    â€œAshes to ashes, and dust to dust,” droned the pastor, while my father and I spread my mother’s ashes over the ocean water. Some of them fell into the water and dissolved, while others were caught in the wind and carried away. This was my mother’s final wish—to be in the place she loved the most, where all her favorite memories live on.
    As the funeral concluded and people began to drift away saying words of comfort to my father and me, I stayed behind to say my final farewell to Mother. I carried her favorite shell that brought her so much comfort while she was in the hospital and unable to hear the sounds of the ocean. I put it to my ear and the sound of the ocean seemed almost muted. I looked into the shell and was surprised to find a piece of paper stuck inside of it. I pulled the paper out and read its words:
    To my daughter, I will always love you and be with you.
    A name in the sand will never last,
    The waves come rolling into shore high and fast.
    And wash the lines away,
    But not the memories we shared that day.
    Where we have trod this sandy shore,
    Our traces we left there will be no more.
    But, wherever we are,
    The memories will never be far.
    Although I may not be with you,
    Know that my love for you will always be true.
    Those memories will last forever,
    And in them we shall always be together.
    Hold them close to your heart,
    And know that from your side I will never part.
    As I crossed the beach, I stooped and wrote my mother’s name in the sand. I continued onward, turning only to cast one last lingering look behind, and the waves had already begun to wash my lines away.
    Elizabeth Stumbo

Inner Sustenance
    A ll of the significant battles are waged within the self.
    Sheldon Kopp
    All I ever wanted was to be popular. Have the coolest friends. Be in a hot rock band and date the best-looking men—simple wishes for a young girl. Some of my dreams even came true. I started a rock band. And the cutest guy at Melbourne High School even asked me out.
    I answered yes of course, but within a week, he complained, “Your hips are too big. You need to lose weight to look thin like the other girls in your band.”
    Immediately, I tried several different diets to lose weight. For one, I ate grapefruit and vegetables only. That didn’t work; I felt faint and had to eat. The second week I tried skipping breakfast and dinner. When I did that, I became so hungry by the time dinner came, I splurged and eventually started gaining weight. Ten pounds I added in a month trying to please my boyfriend. Instead of praising my efforts, he cut me down even more. “You look like a whale,” he said, making me feel not as pretty as my other friends who wanted to date him. I felt self-conscious and didn’t want to lose him as a boyfriend, so I desperately searched for another way to lose the pounds that were keeping him at bay.
    I didn’t even think that he was the problem: just me, it was just me. Whatever I ate made me fatter. Whatever I wore, I looked hideous. I was now 110 pounds, a complete blimp!
    One evening after a date, I got so angry by his “whale” remarks that I ate an enormous piece of cake. The guilt made me want to try something I had seen other girls in my school doing at lunch break: throw up. I went to my bathroom and without even thinking of the consequences, stuck my finger down my throat and threw up in the toilet.
    All I ever wanted was to be as pretty as a model. I wanted my boyfriend to look at me the same way as he did those bikini-poster girls.
    It was so easy. That cake I just enjoyed didn’t cost me any unwanted calories.
    Once a day soon turned into three forced vomits. Becoming malnourished, I was