A Few Words

Connect the Dots
Open your nearest book to page 82. Take the third full sentence on the page, and work it into a post somehow.

This was the third sentence on page 82:
Only the haunting knowledge that her time was running out gave her the drive necessary to get up ……….. the sentence goes on.

The woman in this story was suffering from cancer. Her daughter goes on a cruise, and she is missing. There are others like her, who have gone missing too. They are presumed dead by the police. Through the efforts of a lawyer turned psychologist the killer is apprehended, though she barely escape death at the hands of the killer.

The sentence reminded me of my (late) husband R’s battle with cancer.

I could feel R’s hurt at those people, who were always in, and out of our home at all hours, and when we needed their presence in our world (turned topsy, turvy by sickness), they opted out. They weren’t there for us.

One such couple was a nephew, and his wife. We wouldn’t have felt it, if they were in a different city. They avoided contact with us even through phone calls.

Cancer is not a viral disease, which a person will catch through a contact.

Then another close relation, who could visit us, went into total oblivion. Once we badly needed a driver (for two, three hours) to drive us to Shafa in Islamabad from Pindi. We had taken accommodation in Pindi, to get treatment, once R was diagnosed with cancer.

Our own driver had gone on a three days leave, and a week had gone by, and he hadn’t returned. In desperation I called the relation, reaching them with difficulty. He could have easily sent his driver, but he didn’t. Meanwhile our errant driver came back finally. He got a thorough scolding from a very sick R.

Many stayed away with never a phone call even. There were other sweet people (they were not friends or relatives), and among them R’s PMA Course mates, who used to visit regularly. With their visiting, they would take off my husband’s mind from his illness.

A short visit, so as not to tire the patient, and a few words of comfort, that’s all one needs.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/connect-the-dots/