Art

An insight into Devon's past

December 20th 2014, Friday

        There were pros and cons to being stuck at the hospital. The pros included being able to sleep all day, being taken care of and meeting the other patients. The cons, however, meant I was mostly bored out of my mind and I hadn't been to the Home in four days, which made me being Devon's secret Santa more hard.

        I had recruited Grace as my temporary replacement, and she had being kind enough to buy the gift for me and secretly deliver it. She'd even stayed up putting the songs I wrote for her on the MP3 player.

        Another con was I had to tell her who the gift was for and now she is constantly insisting I take her with me for a shift.

        It was also getting noticeably closer to Christmas and I still didn't know what my very last present to Devon was going to be.

        I looked out the hospital window, watching the snow fall in a lazy sort of way. It seemed like it was finally going to stop snowing in Devon, ironically close to Christmas time. My mind wandered to my apologies to Devon and his blatant disregard of them and I sighed, pressing the bell.         

        Because my condition was getting better, the doctor had allowed me to wander around the patient room as long as I didn't do anything too strenuous.

        My mum had brought me change of clothes and toiletries and after I ate the food the nurse brought, I changed, heading off to the patient room. I had been yesterday and met quite a lot of interesting people and I grinned as I walked faster, not wanting to miss anything going on.

        Although a lot of them were in terrible conditions and were pretty sick, they had a great outlook on life that was powerful to influence anyone in a positive way.

        I stopped, finally thinking of another secret Santa present I could give Devon which I didn't have to trouble grace for. I quickly ran back to my room, getting my phone and texting Devon, my number hidden.

        I hear volunteering for the hospital is great for the soul this time of year, I dare you to do just that. I re-read the message before I sent it. I walked back out, going to the patients room, hoping that my gift to Devon would actually work.

        I was hoping that being surrounded by such positive people who were living with terribly diseases would open his eyes a bit and show him that a person shouldn't live with negativity and shouldn't latch on to pain.

        Making him realise that there was much more to life than pain would hopefully be the best present I'd given him so far.

        I reached the patient room and opened it, ducking immediately as a teacup came flying at me.

        "Oh sorry love!" Esmeralda shouted. Esmeralda was a lovely old lady with bone cancer (sarcoma), who was possibly the most positive person I'd ever known in my life. I had a talk with her yesterday and got to learn a lot about her.

        She developed the cancer when she was young and fought it, beating it. Then it suddenly came back and she had to spend her days in the hospital, when she should have gone to the Bahamas with her family.

        "But that will never keep me down love, beat it once, will beat it again." She'd told me yesterday with a grin and proceeded on dancing around to show how healthy she was, even though she only lasted 20 seconds before she felt dizzy and weak. I truly admired her for that.

        I walked over to her and sat down on the couch beside her as she offered me tea.

        "It's the usual spasms this darn cancer brings." She complained, her hands shaking a bit as she poured her own cup of tea. Although the hospital offered her a nurse to help her with her daily tasks, Esmeralda refused, saying until she died from the cancer, she'd never let it consume her.