[ONC 2022 SHORTLISTER] She was running from something while he was running to something. When strange circumstances throw them together, they realise that home isn't just where you sleep at night.
When Lily Gilmore visits her family home over Chris...
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Troubles are weird things; they creep up on you like parasites and suck the life out of you, turn your life upside down and eat away at the good things about you. When I first got on the train, my troubles were all about Bruno, then when I got to know Wyatt, it was whether we would get on outside the train because we'd met our saviours in a way. Now we're finally off the train, the troubles are starting about whether this is appropriate or not.
His parents were more than welcoming; the moment they saw their son, they got out of their dark Range Rover, and looking worse for wear, they embraced Wyatt before moving on to give me one of the biggest hugs I've ever experienced. Since moving to Wales, I found that the stereotype of Welsh being overly friendly wasn't strictly true, but the moment Wyatt's mum grabbed me into a hug as tight as a seatbelt, I knew that stereotype reached this couple.
The moment they were told I was going with them to meet Rose and stay with them for Christmas and they both started enthusing and getting excited – like a child on Christmas morning – I felt my troubles melt away just like sugar in hot tea.
It's the moment we walk through the doors of the elevator to the hallway outside her ward that everything changes. Everyone's smiles – including mine – turn down into frowns and the serious nature takes over. It's the unsaid that says it all; it's Christmas eve and we're visiting the hospital to see Wyatt's dying sister, and Mark and Laura's dying daughter.
The moment we turn the bland white and blue corridor into the ward, everything comes to bittersweet life. Though the walls are still bland in the NHS colours, with the windows looking out of each bay into the grey sky of Wales, everything is buzzing around us. There are Christmas trees at the nurse's desk, tinsel tightly wound to the ceiling – not loose so they don't harm someone apparently – and Christmas music is playing. Each healthcare worker is wearing some sort of Christmas hat.
Laura and Mark act cheery as they get greeted by the nurses, who already know them by first name. They introduce Wyatt to them, and then by extension me as Wyatt's girlfriend. I smile at each nurse, around five of them, while I take in the cheery mood around such a life-sucking environment. I remember Wyatt telling me in the car how Rose chose not to go to the hospice the doctor offered to her because she wanted to stay in a place that gave her at least a little bit of hope. Apparently, she believed that going to a hospice would make her brain tell her she was going to die, and she would. But I felt the juxtaposition as soon as I walked in here – a ward for people with terminal cancer, yet she believes it will give her hope.
"Wyatt!"
Rose is sitting up in her bed, a green elf hat on her head with a little bell that jingles every time she moves. Her brown hair is poking out in a plait around her neck like a necklace. She looks like a ghost; the phone gave her a little more colour. But her smile is genuine and warm, and so full of life as we enter the bay.
