A Dream of the Past

Mrs. Jenkins was sitting in her seat in the waiting room, waiting to be called to receive her chemotherapy. This was her 3rd treatment, and she wasn’t looking forward to it. She pretended to look through the pages of the magazine she was holding as she glanced around the room at others waiting for the same fate.

There was another man and woman sitting in the seat across from her, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson. She met the lady during her last treatment. This lady was also receiving chemotherapy. There was a man sitting a couple seats down that she hadn’t seen before. Someone else was at the front checking in.

After Mrs. Jenkins had her last treatment, she had experienced extreme fatigue,nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Her poor husband didn’t get much sleep trying to keep her comfortable.

Before each treatment, her family went through a ritualistic house cleaning regimen. Everything had to be scrubbed and cleaned from ceiling to floors. This was to prevent germs from being in her environment as she was recovering from her chemotherapy. Sheets were placed over the couch and chairs to prevent the chemicals in her body from getting on the furniture as she sweated out toxins. If these chemicals didn’t kill her, the cancer would.

Mrs. Jenkins couldn’t help but wonder what would her family do without her if she didn’t survive this. Yes, it hurt so much, yet she knew she had to fight for her family’s sake. Who would her daughter get advice from when she was having issues in her marriage? Who would make sure her son would be able to make it through college? She wanted her grandchildren to remember her, and wanted so much to be a part of their lives.

All of a sudden, there was a little ruckus going on in the corner of the waiting room which jarred her from her depressing thoughts. A little girl, who looked around 3 yrs old, was running around and saying, “No, my cat got lose! I have to catch it! Here kitty kitty!”

Then out of the blue, Mr Thompson acted like he picked something up and ate it all while making sounds of what it would sound like if he swallowed a cat. This upset the little girl, and she ran over to her uncle who had sat down after being checked in. “Uncle Bob, that mean old man ate my cat!”

Without missing a beat, her Uncle Bob gets out of his seat and walks over in front of Mr. Thompson. “ Give the baby back her cat!”, he said.

So Mr. Thompson obediently, started coughing and acting like he was coughing up the cat he just swallowed. “Ok, I will give it back. It was scratching up my insides with its claws anyway!”

So the little girl’s uncle acted like he scooped up her imaginary cat and went back to his seat. The couple who walked in the door to the waiting room about a minute after must have thought it strange when they saw a grown man petting an imaginary cat. He had told the little girl, “You go ahead and play, Uncle Bob will watch your cat.”

Mrs. Jenkins took a look around, and the atmosphere in the room had changed. Instead of grim expressions on the people’s faces, there were smiles and adoration. It had even brought a smile to her own face.

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Beep, Beep, Beep! I sleepily reached over to turn off the alarm. Wait! Where am I? Was that real? No, it was a dream.




Note ▼

Word count: 593

ROUND 19


Who should I write about? For the purposes of this contest, choose someone who is a blood relative from a generation prior to yours. In other words, your parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great-aunts and great-uncles, grandmother's cousin, etc. Not acceptable would be your own siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, second-cousins, etc.

No matter what generation you write about, make sure you put their story in a historical perspective!

Prompt 1: Do you have a great family recipe that has been passed down through the generations? When was it served? Who made it for you and how often did you eat it? Does it bring back memories for you and do you make it for your family?

Prompt 2: Is someone in your family adopted? Have they met their biological family? Write a story about how different their life would have been if they had grown up with their biological family. Compare and contrast the cultures of the two families, discuss what being adopted at that time in history meant.

Prompt 3: Open prompt - Do you have a great story to tell? Give us your best family jewel. What is buried under the dust in your attic? We have a list of prompts that may inspire you to tell your family's story from a new perspective. You are welcome to use any of these prompts or come up with one of your own. "R&W Contest Prompts"

Bonus Prompt: Go on a journey of discovery!
Using the genealogy tool of your choice, start discovering members of your family tree. Follow a branch of that tree and concentrate on bringing details of your ancestors to life. If you can augment your research with other sources of information, such as oral histories, even better. Write a new story that brings your research together.

If you're looking for access to free genealogical information, try http://www.familysearch.org.

To give you more information about the genealogy options out there:
https://www.top10bestdnatesting.com/genealogy?utm_source=google&kw=genealogy%20r...

**A note to the wise: some of these sites have free 14 day trials. If you choose to take advantage of this make sure that you read all of the instructions so that you can cancel your membership in a timely manner, or make sure you are prepared to start paying for the service after the free trial.

Entry for

FORUM

Roots & Wings Contest  (E) Can you capture the essence of an ancestor in one story? CLOSED #1962161 by 🐕GeminiGem🎁