Today is Saturday, Day 116 in Bahrain’s stay-at-home time, day 81 of The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad. The prompt today is by Susan Cheever. What would you write from a burning building, where there is no escape? You know it’s the last thing you will write. Who do you write to? What would you say?

Dear family,

(Or whoever gets this paper airplane flown out the window of my burning building – I hope you will try to pass it along to my family.)

Well, this is not how I expected to go out. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has made me realize that it could be a fatal bout of coronavirus that does me in or DNA related to my heart or, like this, in a burning building. It has made me more appreciative of my days, hours, and minutes. And now I just have a few left.

What should I say when I’m limited to these few stress-filled minutes left on earth?

First, of all, I’m not afraid. It took me some time, but I’ve realized it will happen. I know that there is a God and I’m thankful I don’t have to be in charge of life or death. So I’m ready.

Having said that, I do want to say that I have regrets. I have years that I was more fully alive than others. I wish I would have been more intentional about making the world a better place. I wish I would have listened when Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke when I was a kid.  I wish I would have asked more questions and demanded more answers. Now, it’s too late. I leave it to you, my daughters. I trust that the world is going to be in a much better place because of your generation. I know you will be better.

It’s getting hot now. I better go fly this letter out the window.

With all my love for now and eternity,

Mom