A Girl In One Room by Jessica Taylor-Bearman

Author:Jessica Taylor-Bearman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hashtag Press
Published: 2021-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Spread The Hope

Being back home with Team Taylor was wonderful, but getting used to being downstairs in the centre of the family house was challenging. Unlike upstairs, noise came from all directions. There was the washing machine, the tumble dryer, people banging kitchen appliances around and everyone having multiple conversations. It was hard to rest, as every noise made me jump and pierced my ears.

Despite the ongoing torture that the M.E. Monster caused, I had been planning for an exciting new musical opportunity. Music was such a big part of my life before I was ill. It had been my passion. I used to enjoy singing harmonies in the church choir and coming up with new songs from a young age. I played the violin and the clarinet, but I had always loved the piano. I used to listen to Tom playing in the living room and when he left the music sheets, I tried to teach them to myself.

When I was in hospital in 2010, I came up with an idea for a Christmas song. I had barely been able to tolerate the sound of any music, so I used to imagine it playing in my head. Christmas had always been my favourite time of the year and I loved that the music was timeless.

The melody went around my head, whilst I came up with some lyrics to go with it. I called it Spread the Hope, and over many months I recorded it on my phone. When I sent it to Mum, she shared with our musical friends who said they wanted to make it come alive.

Many years after I had help to arrange the song, my old violin teacher volunteered his daughter and one of my oldest friends, Elizabeth, to do the vocals. She recorded it whilst I was at Narnia and wanted to come and show it to me. It was going to be the first time I had seen her since I had been struck down with the M.E. Monster. I hadn’t really seen any of my friends due to how unpredictable my health was. I had tried to make plans to meet up with Elizabeth, but the Monster had always intervened and prevented it from happening.

When she arrived, she looked completely different to how I had remembered her eight years ago. I hadn’t seen my violin teacher in even longer and for a moment, we didn’t know what to say to each other. So much had happened since I had last seen them; I was a different girl to the one they remembered. It was as if I had been through a war zone. I found it hard to be as quick-witted as I used to be. The reality was we had all grown up.

We hugged each other closely, not wanting to let go. The last time we’d seen each other was when we were teenagers going through a dodgy ‘emo stage,’ with black hair and very pale skin.

I had known Elizabeth since I was born.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.