Free Bruno by Stephanie Pokorney Page B

when I went to Jared’s?” “That’s because you were down the block, Saige is going to Italy.” “Same concept.” “MOM! Can we have a snack before we go to dinner?”
    My mom starts answering their questions, one by one, demanding dirty gym clothes be thrown in the hamper and no shoes on the couch. I shake my head. Some things never change.
    Tomorrow my plane will take me to Italy. I made plans to work with an orphanage/hospital who is always in desperate need of volunteers. I’m only staying for 30 days, but I’m already making plans to come back as often as I can. I want to work with children that are Alex’s age and maybe people that have the same illness Bruno did. I’m not really too picky about who I work with or what I do, though; everyone likes a little more beauty in their life.
    All of my belongings are packed. I am zipping up my last bag, biting my lip trying to get it to close without ripping, and I notice the pink book on my shelf. Since finding Bruno’s book of my favorite hand written poems, I’ve probably read it a million times. I usually keep it under my pillow, and I swear I had packed it, yet there it sits.
    I take it off the bookshelf, deciding it belongs in my purse anyway. Out of habit, I flip through the pages. The last page is always “How Do I Love Thee”, but today, the page weighs heavy on my fingertips. I rub against my thumb and pointer finger, and a separate page emerges.
    “Oh my gosh,” I whisper, pulling the two pages apart to find a letter written to me from Bruno.
    It read:
    Amore Vinci Omnia means love conquers all.
    Most people relate that to making a person live who should have died. I don’t think that’s what it means. I think Amore Vinci Omnia means when I was dying, you’re love helped me not ache as much as I should, or be upset about death. I think amore vinci omnia means that loving me even after death helps get you through the grief and sorrow. Love conquers all doesn’t mean the person you love doesn’t dye; or the person you love stays with you for the first of your life. Love conquers all means the good outweighed the bad; that no matter how your relationship ended, that it was always okay in the end.
    Love is all around you. Love is life, Life is love, and both are so beautiful. That’s why I know it’s going to be okay. Even if you don’t think it is, life only gets more beautiful every day.
    Never pretend to be happy, because then whenever the chance arrives for you to be happy, you’ll have yourself thinking you’re fine and the opportunity will pass you up. Life isn’t about being fine. Life is about being so much more than fine. Never settle for “just fine.”
    Everything about life is beautiful. Even the bad things that seem ugly are just beauty in disguise. There’s a lot of beauty in disguise out there, but it’s still beauty. If everything in life was so obviously beautiful, life wouldn’t be fun anymore, would it? The best part of life is finding the beauty in something that most others don’t see. Something being beautiful to you is better than beauty to just everybody.
    You were beautiful before me, Saige. And now you’re going to be even more beautiful without me. Because hopefully for the last year we were together, I made your life more beautiful; which made you more beautiful; which means every person’s life you entered was made more beautiful, too. Beauty is contagious. Just like love.
    I love you, Saige. I loved you before, I loved you then, and I love you now. Forever.
    See beautiful. Be beautiful. Love. And be loved.
     
    “Bruno,” I say, hugging his letter to my chest, “Tuo amore mi ha fatto bella.” And now I’m going to return the favor, by making someone else beautiful with my love; because what is love given if not returned? It’s not love at all. It’s not beauty. And love is life. And life is beautiful.

 
     
     
     
     
    Note about:
    Bruno
    The Novel
    Bruno is a real person.
    He was diagnosed with