adopted@70

Sunshine And Smiles!

On a sunny afternoon, an old lady sat up and looked outside at the lovely garden her small room faced and smiled at all the happiness and greenery that was spread around the place. The flowers and the positive energy were only a few things that she absolutely loved the place for. As much as most people would like or expect for this place to be some fancy resort at an exotic holiday destination, it honestly wasn't.

It was a cheerful and bright old age home somewhere at the outskirts of a big town where busy people walked around the streets like zombies and worked their bottoms off, knowing at the back of their heads that karma was probably marking their names on some sort of list. They had sent their parents to the old age home and soon they would end up there too, they knew.

But none of these thoughts even slightly crossed the top of Rachael's head as she got up and marked yet another day off her calender that stood still on her tiny but tidy desk and then glanced at the framed photo of her beautiful family that sat at the corner of the desk but never the corner of her heart. Pictures are memories captured and moments paused, probably the only place where time has a very docile effect. She smiled at it as lovingly as she had done everyday since the past thirty years.

As she stood there admiring the family that she prided herself for flawlessly raising, Sarah walked into her room and stood near the door. Rachael noticed her but didn't react in any manner whatsoever. After about 5 minutes, Sarah walked up to her and glanced at the picture before remarking-"This picture is around a hundred years old, when will you stop worshipping it?"

Rachael smiled and playfully told her "When the skies turn as yellow as your teeth, Sarah, for heaven's sake, don't skip flossing, I beg you!" Sarah laughed sheepishly and waved out to Rachael before rushing back outside. " Hopefully, towards a more hygienic habit",Rachael muttered to herself as her friend, who lived in the room next to hers for years now, walked off.

Rachael, all alone again, sat on her weary looking bed and sighed. She had gotten quite accustomed to the loneliness now, she was quite used to being left behind. First by her classmates in academics, then by her opponents in races, then by her friends as they moved to bigger cities, then by her own children who left in turn with their own families, and finally by her husband who departed for heaven without the woman he had promised to stay with forever! He had warned her, only a day before death embraced him, to not be in a hurry to join him, "I have to ensure the place is perfectly set up for you!", he had uttered with utmost difficulty, "If you take very long then we can celebrate all the pending anniversaries at one go!" he stammered and stopped and coughed as he said. She smiled with tears in her eyes and the very next day, almost just like that, she woke up and found her lifelong companion gone. What happened right after was a blur in her mind.

She looked at all her friends who resided at the old age home, enjoying with their families as she secretly longed for her own to come visit her, which they did, no doubt, but it was not very often. She picked the book she was currently occupying her wandering mind with and continued to read it from where she had last left it, the previous night.
But those stories didn't last as long as her hope did and all the happy endings made her crave for one too but never would she have imagined what plans destiny had in store for her!