Goodbye Mary Sue

by Stephanie Bartley

My name is Sally Walthow and I'm 13 years old. My best friend was Mary Sue Bernthy. She had been my best friend since preschool and she was my best friend until she left forever. We were inseparable. We were two peas in a pod, a fork and a spoon, peanut butter and jelly. I really miss Mary Sue. I don't think life will ever be the same without her.

On the first day of preschool, I met Mary Sue. I remember her plaid dress and her curly blonde hair that was pulled back into pigtails. She came up to me and said, "Hi, my name is Mary Sue. What's your name?"

I was shy and still am. My mom whispered something and gently gave me a shove. I replied quietly, "Sally."

"Will you play with me?" she asked.

"Yes," I retorted, and we were friends from then on.

Our parents became good friends, also. So when they did something together, Mary Sue and I would usually get to play together. We went to the park together. We went to the pool together. We went to McDonald's together. We even went to school together.

In Kindergarten, Mary Sue started going to the hospital very often and I began seeing less and less of her. I asked my parents why she kept going to the hospital and they just said that someone in her family was very sick. I figured that was a reasonable answer.

A few months went by, and Mary Sue began to go to the hospital even more. I began to worry about her. I asked my parents why Mary was at the hospital for so long and so often. They told me that she had to get her appendix taken out. I asked them why and they said, "It went bad."

I finally began to see Mary Sue more, but she had to walk on crutches or ride in a wheelchair. She told me that she didn't want to talk about why she had to, but I knew it wasn't good. Mary Sue said, "All I want to do is to have the most fun I could ever imagine." From that point on we did everything together.

At the end of school that year, my teacher gave Mary Sue a special certificate for striving to be all that she could. The school even hung a plaque with her picture in the lobby. When I looked back at her parents, they were crying and Mary's dad was embracing her mother. Mary Sue's dad saw me and he smiled at me. I knew something was wrong.

That summer was my favorite summer ever. Me and Mary Sue literally did everything and went everywhere together. Towards the end of the summer, I didn't see Mary Sue at all and mom told me that Mary Sue was very, very sick.

I didn't see her again until the day before school started. She came over and wanted to play. I began to act very shy and most of the time I just sat there and stared at her. She asked me why I wasn't talking to her and I asked her if she was sick. She said that she had a tumor. That still didn't help my shyness because I didn't know what a tumor was.

A few minutes passed and Mary Sue said, "Sally, do you want to see something?"

I replied, " Sure." I looked up at Mary and she pulled off her hair. She was bald. She said that her medicine made her hair fall off and she bought a wig. After a while she said that she had to leave.

At school the next day, I looked for Mary Sue but she wasn't there. I knew she was excited about the first day of first grade and she wouldn't miss it for the world.

When I got home, I called Mary Sue's house. The phone rang once. It rang twice. It rang three times. She wasn't home.

The next week, I went to visit Mary Sue in the hospital. She had a lot of tubes in her body. Her parents were both crying. My parents weren't dry-eyed very long. I ran over to Mary Sue's bedside. She quietly said, " Take advantage of all your chances."

A few minutes later, the nurse came in and told us that visiting hours were over. I felt as if it were my duty to stay right at Mary Sue's side, but my parents made me leave. As we were leaving I cried, "Goodbye Mary Sue."

That was the last time I said goodbye to Mary Sue. She died the next day. I've known all along that Mary Sue died, but not until last year did I realize that she died of cancer.

After Mary Sue died, her parents moved away. I never saw them again. I don't like to talk about Mary Sue very much, but whenever I'm down I go to my elementary school and look at Mary Sue's plaque. It reminds me of all the fun times we had together. I understand now what my kindergarten teacher meant by, "... for striving to be all that she could."

If I only learned one thing from Mary Sue, it would be to take advantage of all the chances you get. I understand now what Mary Sue meant by that. You never know just when your time is going to run out. Thank you and goodbye Mary Sue.

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Created: July 1996