Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. Mabel often hears the same compliments from everyone around her: how beautiful she is, how her skin glows as radiantly as the morning sun, how her well-defined oval face and lush lips make her a vision to behold. Yet every time she looks in the mirror, she fails to see any of it.

What stares back at her is a girl weighed down by the burdens of the world—a girl whose heart has been shattered beyond repair, left in shambles. Her eyes, once vibrant and filled with light, now appear hollow, lifeless, with little hope or reason to live.

The compliments only deepen her despair, cutting sharper than her reflection ever could. The mirror, after all, does not lie to her the way others do—those who offer sweet words laced with ulterior motives, paying her lip service for what they hope to gain.

But they do not know. They do not know that she would give up everything she has if only she could see and feel what they claim to see in her. If only she could be the girl she once was—the one whose eyes sparkled with joy before death extinguished that light. The day her entire family perished in a plane crash was the day her world turned dark, leaving her alone to navigate a world filled with predators disguised as people.

“Oh, death, where is your sting? When will you finish the work you started with my family? When will your unyielding grip take this worthless life of mine?”

These questions, these thoughts, plagued her mind for years. They consumed her, leaving her feeling worthless and unlovable. She never thought she would escape the shadows of grief, let alone find herself here—fully healed from the emotional trauma that once threatened to drown her.

But life has a way of surprising us. Like a wise man once said, ‘There is still hope for a tree; even if it is cut down and its roots linger in the ground, at the scent of water, it will bud again.’ Mabel became that tree. She blossomed back to life, nourished by the water that came in the form of a true friend—someone who loved her deeply, taught her to love herself, and showed her how to shine her light in a world that had once seemed so dark.

Mabel is no longer the girl weighed down by the mirror’s reflection. She is a survivor, a guide, and a beacon of hope for others navigating the same struggles that nearly consumed her.