Dearly Departed

DEARLY DEPARTED



He touched her face gently. He moved his fingers down her cheeks and around her chin. He could feel the wrinkles which time had etched on to her face. She was old, eighty five years old, and not getting any younger. Neither was he. He was eighty five as well and he also had wrinkles.

He turned slowly in bed and lay on his back for a while. Time had not been kind to them. He constantly read in books about people aging gracefully but he reckoned that was very far from the truth. He didn’t know anyone who had aged gracefully. All their friends had aged with pain, with arthritis, diabetes, and cancer taking their toll. All their friends were gone now, gone to rest forever. Amen to that!

Jack had been the last to go. God was he a fighter! He had lingered on and on, with cancer eating him away until he had become as light as a feather. Big Jack, who at six foot six was as strong as a horse – had been in his younger days.

They’d gone through a lot together, Jack and him. Even in ‘Nam they had been together, covering each other’s back, and had made it back in one piece. To see him die a bit every day had been heart wrenching, wanting to help but not able to. It seemed like yesterday when he’d dragged himself over to Jack’s place every day, just to have a chat, just to be there with him.

Jack was gone now. Had died in his sleep and gone to everlasting rest. God, how he missed Jack! There was no one he could talk to now. Only Gladys. Being a woman and being his wife made it a different thing altogether though. Jack had been his mate, he had been like the older brother he had never had.

He tossed and turned but could not find a restful pose, could not go to sleep. He hadn’t slept properly for ages now. He just dozed off when he felt like it. There was nothing else to do all day. Nothing to do all night either except let his mind wander through the years, remembering the good old days when he had been young and strong. He had never bothered too much about school and getting an education which was why he had started to work at the hardware store as soon as he could. He didn’t mind the hard work, unloading and stacking away the goods coming in and helping to load up the goods the customers bought.

That was how he had met Gladys. Old Grimshaw had bought all that timber and Joe the owner had told him to go with Mr. Grimshaw to his house and help him to unload it. Gladys Grimshaw was not endowed with pretty looks, she was prim and proper but she had a good figure and she was kind of cute. Even now at eighty five she still had the same figure, even after giving birth to three children.

He put his hands behind his head and as he lay there in bed he thought of Gladys, the young Gladys he had courted and whose heart he had won. They had fallen in love and by the time her father had found out it had been too late. They were too much in love to give each other up and so they had run away, got married and managed to rent a little place with his wages and Gladys’ money from her job at the shoe shop.

Things weren’t too bad until Gladys fell pregnant, making it very hard to get by with his wage alone, and with three mouths to feed and all. But Sam was a lovely boy and worth all the hardships. And then the war came and he had to go, shipped off to Europe and North Africa. Those were bad times, watching your mates die one by one, wondering when it was going to be your turn. The letters from Gladys kept him going, realizing that there was another world out there, a better world which they had to fight for.

Joe gave him his old job back at the hardware store after the war, which was good enough for him. He did a few gardens on weekends to get some extra money. Then Sally came along and little Jimmy a year later and with three children it became very hard to cope.

Gladys took in ironing and they helped the kids as much as they could. At least all three of them had turned out smart, did well at school and got really good jobs. Sam ran his own courier business and although always busy did ring them up now and then to see how they were getting along. Unfortunately his wife Prue was too posh to share their company and as far as she was concerned they did not exist.

Sally had become a school teacher, had met and married a school teacher, and lived too far away to be of any help to them. She rang every week to tell Gladys about the weekly news, mostly about her two children and the three grandchildren.

Little Jimmy came to see them every week. He was a successful lawyer, very much in demand, but he always made time to visit them. Success had come late but as they say, better late than never. He complained a lot, mainly about the state of the house, wanting to fix it for them or offering to buy them a small place full of modern appliances. It was very hard to convince him that they didn’t want any help, they had managed to survive all these years, and they should be able to cope with the remaining time left.

Maybe he should have accepted his offer. The house was cold, especially in winter, it was damn cold. In his old age he was feeling the cold more and more, and his arthritis was very bad when it was cold. He turned again and touched Gladys next to him. She was cold, poor thing.

They had spent all their lives together, except for the time he was away during the wars. They had been married for sixty eight years, they knew each other inside out and they did not want to be separated, even by death. Many times they had discussed the matter and had decided that if it became really bad they would go to eternal sleep together, they would die together. That was the way to end it all.

They didn’t have enough courage to do it. Not yet. It was bad sometimes and both of them had had heart surgery. Both of them had been at the edge of darkness, but it had happened to them separately and each time it had happened they had not wanted to leave the other one behind, so you fight and make it through.

He woke with a start. He must have dozed off for a while. Funny, but he hadn’t even noticed that he had fallen asleep. His brain had kept on thinking, unless he had dreamt some of it. He was cold, he was freezing and hugging the blankets around him did not seem to make any difference. It was so cold that his heart was having trouble to keep on beating.

He checked on Gladys. She was cold, very, very cold. He put the blankets all around her and tried to hug her close to him, giving her some of his body heat. What body heat he thought! He was just as cold. He felt her coldness seeping into him and with a sudden jerk he sat up. A sudden jab of fear shot through him. Was she all right? He touched her all over. She was completely cold. Was she breathing? He started to shake. She had beaten him to it and died first. Her body was blue with cold.

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he contemplated life without her. He couldn’t live without her. What was there to live for? Nobody needed him.

He stood up slowly and walked out to the small kitchen. He opened a cupboard and groping at the back he pulled out two little bottles. Her bottle. He put that one back and opened his and emptied the contents into the palm of his hand. He put them all in his mouth and pouring himself a glass of water he swallowed them all. Looking at the kitchen clock he saw that it was nearly two o’clock in the morning.

He went back to bed and cuddled up to Gladys. It wouldn’t be long before he joined her. Those tablets were very strong. Jack had acquired them in a moment of weakness, intending to end it all when the pain became too much. But he had never used them.

Jack had passed them over to him just before the end and Gladys and he had put them in two small bottles, for them to use if things became unbearable. They had made a pact that day, they would die together as they had lived together. As Mick Brady drifted off to eternal sleep he smiled and thought of his Gladys, the Gladys he had met so long ago. He hugged her body as hard as he had hugged the young Gladys all those years ago.

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Gladys stirred painfully and turning slowly looked at the alarm clock. It was only three o’clock. She was freezing but at least the sleeping tablet had worked and given her a few hours of restful sleep. Mick was cuddled up to her as usual and her heart went out to him. He was a faithful husband and she had never had any reason to complain about him. He had always done his best, for her and for the children. He had worked hard without much reward for all of his life and even in old age life had not treated him too well. That had been their destiny. At least their three children had turned out better than them. They wouldn’t have to suffer their fate.

It was really cold and she cuddled up to Mick as usual but his body was really cold. Too cold.

She got up quickly and went to his side of the bed. She bent down and touched his cold face. He lay there peacefully with a little smile on his lips. He was dead. She sat down on the edge of the bed and cried at the loss of her husband. Sixty eight years they had been married and it had to end like this. At least he had died in his sleep. Not like some of their friends who had gone in a most painful way. Jack had suffered for years before the cancer won. There were no friends left who would miss Mick, just her.

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t live by herself. All alone in the house with only herself for company. Sure, Sally called every week and Jimmy came to see them at least once a week. But it wasn’t the same.

Gladys stood up and drying her eyes she walked into the kitchen. She knew what she had to do. They had decided this a while back and it had to be done. She definitely could not stay around without Mick. She would go and join him, somewhere where there was no pain, where it wasn’t so cold.

She opened a cupboard and groping at the back she pulled out a little bottle. She emptied the contents straight into her mouth and pouring herself a glass of water she drank it all and swallowed the tablets.

She looked at the clock. It was three thirty in the morning and she was shaking with cold. Was it cold or fear, she asked herself. She was going to die soon. She went back to bed and cuddled herself around Mick. It shouldn’t take too long before the tablets did their job.

Gladys slowly drifted off to join Mick in the next world. She thought of when they had met, fallen in love, their wedding day. She smiled as she remembered the young handsome Mick. They had made a nice couple. Even the minister had said so. She hugged Mick tight with all her strength and slowly went to eternal sleep.

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It was very cold. James Brady blew on his cold hands as he waited at the traffic lights. It was going to be a long day, same as the other days. Sometimes he wondered why he put in the hours that he did, driving himself to the limit. Was it for the money? Was it for the power? If he got the Asquith business he would be set for life. The Asquith Corporation was huge, with many divisions around the country. He would have to hire more staff.

The angry beeping horns behind him brought him back down to earth and letting in the clutch he set off again.

He’d drop in quickly and make sure that Mum and Dad were OK. It had been a very cold night. It was still damn cold and he adjusted the car heater. They were very obstinate, the old folks, very set in their ways. He’d been telling them for years to either fix the old house or move into something small and modern. The old place was rundown and always freezing, especially in winter. Rising damp had wrecked the foundations and had spread throughout the whole place. If he had his way he would have demolished it long ago.

He turned the corner into Elm Street and parked in front of No. 43. He looked at the old place and remembered his childhood there. That was a long time ago now and as he got out of the car he looked down the street. All the old homes had gone, most of them replaced with big two-storey houses or even on the corner they had put in four villas because the land had been huge.

A worried look came over his face as he noticed that the blinds were still down. That wasn’t like Mum. She was always up early and opened the blinds when the sun came up. He looked at his watch and noted that it was just after nine o’clock.

A feeling of apprehension gripped him as he pushed past the gate and ran up the short drive. He pulled out the spare key and fumbled to open the door. Something was wrong. He could feel it.

‘Mum, Dad. Where are you?’ he yelled as he shut the front door behind him. He walked into the kitchen but it was empty. He pushed open the bedroom door and stood there in the doorway, looking down at the two bodies snuggled together. He walked across but he knew that it was too late. He touched their cold bodies and shivered as the truth hit him. His parents were dead.

Tears came to his eyes and brushing them away he rushed to the phone and rang for an ambulance. He rang Dr Todd for good measure too.

They weren’t long in coming. He let the ambulance crew in and as they examined the bodies Dr Todd arrived too. They had died in their sleep. The cold snap during the night had done its bit as their hearts gave out. They both had a history of heart trouble and really should not have lived this long anyway. At least their wish had come true. They had died together.

The ambulance went away. They only looked after people who were still alive. A special van would come to pick up the bodies and take them to the morgue.

As Jimmy waited with Dr Todd he recalled the part of his life he had spent in this house. He grew up here and lived here until he had moved into a small place close to university where he had gone to study law.

‘Sally,’ he thought suddenly. ‘And Sam.’ He had to call them and let them know.

He found Sally at home, nursing herself through the flu. ‘I’ll fly out tomorrow,’ she promised in a broken voice. It had been expected but she still felt the shock. She would miss the weekly phone call to Mum, the chat they always had.

It was harder to get hold of Sam who was very busy going through a merger with another courier company. Once it was over he could sell his share and move to a warmer climate, somewhere close to the beach. And Prue could go to hell if she didn’t agree with the idea. He promised Jimmy that he would come as soon as he could.

Jimmy watched the bodies being taken away. Poor Mum and Dad. They were at peace at last. He stood in the front room, lost in thought. With a start he remembered the meeting with Mr. Asquith. He locked the front door behind him and standing by the gate he looked at the old house. Forcing himself to think of the present he got into his car and drove off. Life must go on. Mr. Asquith would not wait forever.