BURNING WITH DETERMINATION

At that moment, it was as if the world had stopped for Julie.She knew death was inevitable but how could her father just die?,how could he just leave her alone in this world?,didn't her father know she only depended on him?, that she worked very hard just because of him? at that moment these were the questions that kept repeating itself in Julie's mind. Tears started running down her face like an endless stream. Suddenly her knees became weak as she collapsed to the floor while screaming out her lungs.Her boss, Madam Magret, supported her to stand up. She tried her best to console the sixteen year old Julie but it was to no avail.

After roughly what looked like an hour later, Madam Magret was able to console Julie and after that she followed through with the hospital procedures on her behalf. After all, she had worked with Julie for the past six years and had witnessed her growth and hardwork through out those years.sometimes she even wondered what Julie did in her past life to deserve such a painful life at such a young age. Since Julie had been crying since that afternoon, her boss couldn't do anything but just give her some space. Her boss was in her mid thirties and so she wasn't all that old.

The next morning, As Julie ate nothing since yesterday's afternoon, Her boss was worried about her getting ill so she prepared some food for her.After coercing her to have breakfast , she encouraged her not breakdown much because her father will be very sad to see his daughter like that. She then told Julie that she was going to make arrangements for the funeral and if there were any specific things she wanted to add , she should inform her about it. After that she left for the shop.

Being all alone at home, Julie went to her father's room , went through his belongings as it reminded her of their memories together. Though she could hardly remember what her mother looked like as she died when she was just six but growing up her father never made her feel like she didn't have a mother. He gave her both motherly and fatherly love and now he's left her all alone with no one to look up to. While looking through her father's belongings, she couldnt stop herself from crying. she opened her father's drawer and saw some pictures they took together throughout the years. As she picked them up from the drawer, a folded paper fell out from the pictures and it was a letter from her father to her.The content of the letter were

" My dear Julie,I know by the time you will be reading this letter I will be long gone but remember that am always with , this time, I just wanted to visit your mom because it's been ten years since she went to that place. My dear, I am very sorry that I let you down in this life, you suffered a lot since childhood but let me tell you that I was very proud of you back then, am proud of you now and will always be proud of you even though I won't be present by your side. This is the end of the journey with me but you have a long way to to in life. I know you will be very sad at this moment or even more so cry but I don't want you to do that. I want you to be always happy and strong. I had always known you were strong, intelligent,independent and most importantly hardworking , so I want you to continue doing that, my love. I want you to promise me that you will always be hardworking and become successful, that you will stop crying and stay strong. I will be looking at you from above with your mom. We love you so very much.

From Dad with love."

After reading the letter, Julie stood up,dried her tears and went out. That's when she promised herself to become one of the most successful and powerful people in Atlanta. Just as she opened the front door, she she met her boss.Although many people refered to her as Madam Magret, she allowed Julie to call her Miss Magret. She told Julie that the funeral was to be held on the the next Saturday and that they should be prepared. All the necessary arrangements were made and the funeral went on as planned. There were roughly ten people present, as non of Julie's relatives attended and even if they did, she wouldnt know. Besides she knew that they wouldn't possibly even know whether they were still alive or not as she never saw or heard from them since childhood. There, in front of her father's tomb, she was determined to win, to become successful and independent.

while leaving the burial grounds, her eyes burned with desire and strong determination.This time, she was going to make her father more proud of her. A few weeks after the funeral, she moved in with her boss as she kept urging her to and her reason was simple, she didn't want Julie to be reminded of any of the sad memories while being alone in that apartment. Before she left the apartment she saw a cheque which contained the amount of a total 1.5 million dollars stacked in her father's notebook which she took along with her. She told miss Magret about the money she found and Miss Magret suggested they took it to the bank and verified it . But before that, she asked Julie how her father got that huge sum and why was the money written to her bank account. But she told her boss that she had no idea about it , it just fell off from her father's notebook. She then took out the notebook.

At first when she saw the cheque, it didn't cross her mind to read the notebook. As she opened the notebook, she was surprised to see the contents in it. It stated that by now, she should have found the money already but she should know that the money she found was the money he received from the insurance company throughout the years and he had transfered everything to her account. following on ,she had to follow the business plan in the notebook but first, she should leave the money at the bank till she reached the age of twenty so that she would get a lot of interest on it. Her boss also suggested she sold the house and added the money to the one in the bank as she was now staying with her.

The next morning, they went to the bank and verified it and then posted a notice to sell the house. A few weeks later, a woman bought the house.Throughout the following years, they worked really hard at the noodle shop and never once fell slightly behind.Now Four years had passed and Julie was already twenty, it was high time she started her new life.

Would you join her to walk the journey ahead of together?