Once I was in the hospital, and in the same room with me was another woman, about 50 years old. She looked very beautiful and graceful. Only the wrinkles on her face betrayed her age. Almost every day colleagues and acquaintances came to visit her. They brought luxurious flowers and various fruits, supported her with sincere and warm words. But I saw no joy in her eyes, though she smiled.
Every day she was getting worse, though she had no serous illnesses, as I understood. She almost never got out of bed, she lay as if she were not alive. Only in the evening she would go to the window and stand there for a long time, as if waiting for someone.
One day a sister came to see her, but she was undergoing treatment. We got to talking one day and her sister told me that the husband she loved had left her and that her daughter stopped communicating with him. She was just abandoned as unwanted. The husband because of another woman, and the daughter because she just didn’t love him. I was surprised, because this woman was very beautiful, she didn’t seem awful to me. Now I understand why she stands in front of the window every night, apparently waiting for her husband and daughter. Waiting and hoping. But they never once visited her.
There was no call, no message. In the evening, she stepped away from the window and just lay down, turning her back to the wall, so quiet that it gave me goosebumps. It was as if she was gone, as if she were a statue, not a woman. She could be cured, the course was right. But sometimes treatment alone is not enough, if a person is waiting for someone. She waits, and good, kind people come, but not the right ones. And this woman was practically burning up before my eyes.
Sometimes even medication can’t save you from mental grief, from mental longing for people you care about so much. All that is left is a mindless existence, and memories of happy moments.
I sincerely hope that this beautiful woman is doing well.
