I opened the message on my phone: “Mom is in a coma.”

I read it three times and exhaled.

Sometimes, all you can do is lie in bed, and hope to fall asleep before you fall apart.
William C. Hannah

I love my friend Katherine.

She carries a sun in her heart. Katherine lives in Almaty and this is where we met. We both love theater, slackline and sitting in silence in the mountains.

We went to take acting classes in the same school. I left after finishing the 1st stage and Kat grew up to become the administrator of the best avant-garde theater in the country. I was so proud of her.

The day before yesterday we talked on the phone and she said that she is tearing apart between two dreams. She saved some money to open her clothes shop and at the same time, she wants to vagabond in Russia for a while. I told her that I would choose the latter. She was always a dreamer and I know she would succeed with both.

Yesterday, I left my bouldering gym and checked my phone.

A message from Katherine:
“Hi. Something bad happened. Mom is in a coma. Got hit by a bus(((“

She was in shock.

So was I.

I offered my help. She said no help required. Doctors told her to wait.

I can’t send her this letter because she is a mess right now.

She hid from her thoughts. Found a safe place in her mind and hid there. I hope her conserved pain will not erupt when she least expects it or at least I hope I will be by online to talk with her when it happens.

She’s never been to church but she went today. I told her to pray. I told her that it will work but what do I know?

I would be devastated if this shit happened to me.

I don’t even know why I write all this on Medium…

Hell yes, I know.

I write it because I want you to take your phone and call your loved ones. I want you to tell them that you love them. I want you to hug those you hold dear every time like the last time because someday it will be.

You may have beautiful plans for the future but God can cross it out with a careless movement of his mighty hand.

You may be the toughest guy ever but the Universe will crush you sending the proof test you weren’t ready for.

I want to help my friend and I can’t. I want to be close by and hug her and tell her that everything is going to be ok. I don’t know if it would be a lie but I don’t care.

I understand that it is out of the circle of my control to help her.

So I do what I can do.

I send a reminder to the world.

Someone will read my letter that I sent not to you, Kat, and will make one thing right today — call his family and tell them he loves them. Just one act of love inside someone’s family initiated by an impulse encoded in a random letter of a random guy on Medium, and that would be enough for me.

If you read this, I ask you to join my prayer for Katy’s Mom. I don’t know how the prayers work but I am a believer.

I am a believer because right now the prayer is all I and Katy have.

I love you, Kat. Please, be strong.

Update: Katy’s Mom passed away on Jan 14, 2018. RIP