Not So Alone

It was always the same feeling when Malcolm awoke . He was alone in his big bed . It was never an easy way to start the day . He lay there and did his finger and toe exercises . After some light stretching he spend a while doing his eye exercises . Looking to the left and then to the right and then diagonally up and down . The he did some deep breathing and slowly sat up in bed . After breakfast he liked to sit on his chair and read the morning paper that he collected from the end of the driveway . That was about the limit to Malcolms daily exercise . He lived each day like the one before and complained all day about life and how hard it had been and how he hated being on his alone . He often felt useless and unable to contribute anything at all to life . The pictures he had painted now hung on walls for no one to see . All the unpublished manuscripts he had written all still lay in the bookcase tied up with string . Malcolm could never see all the blessings he had in life . At over ninety years of age he was still able to see and hear . His mobility was pretty good and he still had all his marbles . The nights were either always too long and too cold or too dark and too hard to make through .
One morning as Malcolm got out of bed he made his way to the kitchen table where he counted out the spoonfuls of cereal into a plastic bowl . He slowly poured out some warm milk from a saucepan over the cereal and just as he was sitting down for breakfast the phone rang .
He stood there in two minds trying to decide if he should try to get to the phone before the caller hung up . These days it was difficult to get around . Being old and slow was something he had to get used to now at 94 years of age . He got back on his feet and took about five footsteps over to the other end of the table and picked up the cordless phone .
“Hello. Malcolm here.“ he said quietly .
On the other end of the line was his daughter Trish .
She was calling to wish him happy birthday and let him know that she had a few days free and would like to visit him for a day or two .
After the phone call he forgot about his cereal on the table and headed for the bathroom . He hadn’t shaved for a few days and it must have been a week since he last had a shower . In the hurry to get undressed and into the shower he lost his balance and fell . His instincts made him put his arms out to protect himself from banging his head on the floor . He wasn’t able to save himself a great deal as the strength in his feeble arms was gone and his fragile bones snapped like a piece of chalk .Malcolm ended up looking at the some tiles and was unable to move .As he had already removed the ital call from around his neck Malcolm couldn’t get assistance from any of the emergency team .
He lay there motionless and afraid but then he remembered about Trish his daughter who was on her way to visit him . He thought it shouldn’t take her more than three hours to drive from her villa in the next state and the panic left him . Although in shock he felt amazingly at peace lying there .
Thoughts began to ooze into his head about the years that had gone . He remembered the only love of his life and the day they were married . It was almost like yesterday . He could still see her standing there beside him in her white wedding dress laced with silk and sequins . She had gifted him with six beautiful gifts . Four of these arrived safely and had grown up into responsible adults with blessings of their own . Two of the gifts they had never arrived and Malcolm remembered the loss and grief of that . He recalled the happy times and the sad times during each of his children’s lives . The Day he saw his young son score his first goal at football and how he jumped high into the air with a scream of delight . He recalled the sickness of his wife and how after a long fight overcome what seemed an impossible task . He lay there thinking about the great times they spend with the children when they were young . Each occasion lingered as if time stood still . The summer holidays at the beach house . The spring festivals and country fairs . How he loved walking with his family in the country side . He remembered the hard times as well with losing his job and having to ask for charity . He remembered the arguments with his children and the times he was not able to help them with the things they wanted . He remembered all his children’s friends and also the relationship break ups they had all gone through . He could still recall the day his wife felt she wanted to leave him and how he had accepted that only to have her walk back again . He could feel her there with him now as he lay there helpless and alone on the bathroom floor . He softly spoke to her .
“You told me we were going to go together . But here I am . I’m 94 now and you left me with the four of them .Darling I wish you were still here . “
He felt something trickle underneath him . He knew that it was blood escaping from his body . He wasn’t sure how long he had been lying there alone but knew that help was on its way .
The front door bell rang and rang again . Then he heard Trish call out . Malcolm was not able to shout . Hen had a sharp pain in his chest and ribs that hurt when he breathed . Trish soon realised that something was wrong and smashed a window to get inside .
She found Malcolm ion the floor and knelt down beside him fearing the worst but Malcolm turned his head to her and comically poked out his tongue .
She never laughed , trying to keep calm she said quietly .
“Dad can you tell me exactly what happened ?”
Malcolm smiled ,
“I was practising the two step ..” He coughed and grimaced his face .
“Please Dad tell me what happened .”
He pointed to his trousers on the floor .
“I was getting.. couldn’t .. get. them off .. my..feet.. my ankles . “
Trish ran her hands through his grey hair .
“So you got caught up and Dad ,m is that it . ?

He nodded .
“Can you tell me where it hurts? “
He pointed to his heart .;
“It hurts when I look at all the things I’ve been taking for granted . Like my beautiful Doris , and Sam, Peter ,Jane and you darling Trish .“
came the reply .
She could see that underneath her Dad there was some blood loss . She decided not to move him and remained calm .
“Dad , just lie still and try to relax . I’ll go and call the ambulance . Where’s the phone ? “
“The telephones on the kitchen table.”
He said .
She went and took the cordless phone from the table and rand the emergency number before returning to her Dad . She gave out all the information to the operator , reporting the situation as she saw it . During the communication Malcolm reaches out and takes Trish by the hand . Trish fights back the tears .
“ Dad , the ambulance is on its way. “
The wailing of a siren cut through the still of the evening and in such brief moments Malcolm was on his way to the hospital . On arrival at the hospital two nurses and a porter accompanied Malcolm and Trish through causality and on to intensive care .
The pain was getting worse and Malcolm was getting weaker by the second . He was in need of a transfusion and luckily Trish was able to supply a quantity of the same rare blood group Malcolm had .

In a week Malcolm had recovered enough to talk to all his visitors who had travelled from all over the world . His four children with their partners and all his grandchildren and great grandchildren . The ward was not big enough to accommodate them all . Malcolm saw for the first time just how blessed he was and he was a new man again . He had discovered his lift in spirits with the experience of a bad fall . After Malcolm was released from hospital he was surprised to find that his two oldest children Trish and Peter had bought a home nearby to where Malcolm lived .
What a difference that made . Malcolm felt wanted and loved for the first time since Doris had left . For the next six years Malcolm lived a happy and safe life . He joined a seniors club and went out on bus trips . His family were shocked at his love of life and the enthusiasm he had found .
He still did his toe and finger exercises each morning and showered every two days instead of one a week . His family kept an eye on him and spend most weekends with him .
At one hundred years of age Malcolm showed more zest for life that men half his age . One beautiful day Malcolm slipped away in an aged care facility in the arms of Trish and the people who loved him so much .

By Paul McCann

THE END