Re-united

It was a small group that sat around the hospital bed, two women watching, one seated in contemplation, the other stood quietly looking on. The man it contained was propped up on a mound of pillows partly awake, partly asleep due to the painkillers he was on.

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He now struggled to wake. In his half sleep he’d seen a door opening and a light shining through it. It had frightened him because he knew that once through that door, there was no returning. His eyes flickered and his head moved slightly so that his sister looked up.

The eyes that looked back at her were fully focused on her for the first time in days. The smile on her lips was reflected on the thin pale ones of his. His voice, dry with sleep, cracked and croaked as he spoke.

“Thank you”.

He then turned his head and looked at the lady stood at the side of his bed.

“Mum?”

His sister looked round to where his gaze was directed and she thought she detected a thin shimmer hanging there, at its top was a face, their mother’s. The face smiled at her and the voice was a gentle breeze sounding in the quiet room.

“You’ve done well love”

The face atop the shimmer turned back to the bed, smiled then slowly began to fade as she watched. When it had gone completely she turned back to the bed in time to see his eyelids flicker and close, the smile he’d given her still on his lips.

The last breath of the physical world left his body and he walked through the door to his mother’s arms.

His sister sat for a long time looking at him and where she’d seen their mother, the sound of the words she’d heard wrapped around her. She would hear them forever. She knew now she’d done right.

One last time she looked then rose and called the nurse.

In memory of my brother-in-law who was the inspiration for the story I partly reproduce above. I wrote it almost 14 years ago. Today we said goodbye to his earthly remains and I know he is now at peace in the gentle arms of his mother once more.