"The Last Smile"
Helen is a twenty
one year old woman who is working and earns only a little sum of money which is
less than sufficient to run a family.
She had a little and supportive family, a caring mother and a loving
sister. Her sister is studying in grade
12. They lived in a slum, where there is
no proper sanitation, water and any kind of basic needs available to them. She is the only pillar that supports her
family.
At a dreadful
morning, Helen has received a call saying that her mother has been admitted in a
nearby Government hospital. She arrived
at the hospital doors within five minutes like a thunder bolt. She was very affectionate to her mother. So, when she entered the ward and saw her
mother lying in a bed without any injuries in her body, she was confused. And then thought it would have been some
joint pain but when she learnt that her mother had a Brain Stroke, she
froze. The polluted water they used to
drink in the slum was the reason. Helen
broke down into pieces.
When they were returning
to their home to the slum, her mother was unable to remember the path to their
home. Like she was not in control of
herself, it was clear that she was dying slowly but surely. As the disease worsened and made Helen’s mom
more ill, she forgot everything. She
lost the control over her body and finally, failed to recognize anyone except
Helen. Helen now has to take care of her
mother. She did it like to a baby. She used to feed her, change her diaper,
dress, give her a bath, comb her hair and also help her to sleep. From now on, Helen took more and more care
towards her mother and now her world revolved only around her mother.
On a dreadful
night a ‘thud’ awakened Helen and her sister.
That sound was created by her mother hitting the ground. They saw their mother lay flat on the
earth. She was motionless. Her head was badly injured by the impact of
the collision. She was bleeding, her
lips was very dry. They lifted her and
put her on the bed. Helen cleansed her
wound and asked her whether it was hurting, she told “yes” but no kind emotion
in her face. Her face was like plane
sky. The disease had taken away all her
emotions.
Helen was
completely heartbroken. Now she saw her
mother slowly losing her consciousness day by day. As time passed, her mother was in a very
worse condition than before. First time
after the disease had took hold of her mother; she saw tears in her face. But they knew that she is going die but they
didn’t show their worries to their mom and Helen was shouting and yelling at
the God for her mother’s condition.
Five days after
the impact, when the clock struck 12 am in the morning. Helen saw a smile on her mother’s face after
a long time. This was “the last smile”
on her face; it didn’t last even a minute.
She was no more, her finger fell lifeless. She departed the mortal realm with a smile.
-by Harsha
Comments
Post a Comment