With difficulty, he knelt down on one knee. Charles stood, looking into the eyes of his savior, and gently squeezed her palm in his. Donna watched with a smile at the strange behavior of the man who, in just two years, had become the most important person to her. For the first time in 50 years of her life, she heard a phrase she had dreamed of hearing since she was a student: “Donna, will you marry me?”
When Charles uttered those words, the woman’s breath was taken away, and goosebumps ran down her back. Charles, standing on one knee and leaning his right hand on his cane, was excited too. The woman smiled and squeezed her eyes shut, as if checking whether everything that was happening would disappear if she opened them. But when she opened her eyes, she saw only a shining Charles and replied, “Yes.”
Donna had no hope that she could still have a woman’s happiness. The wheel of her fate was spinning like a roulette wheel in a casino, and Donna was jumping from one field to another, and no matter where she hit, she could not win anywhere. At least some stability in this life, the woman encouraged herself. Over the years, she got used to her way of life, to being on her own without a man. She accepted the fact that she would not know the joys of motherhood and that she would devote herself to taking care of her elderly parents.
Donna first took care of her mother for a long time, then a short time for her father. Father missed his wife very much; he could not be without her and became completely indifferent to everything after her death. He was a calm and non-conflictive man, unlike Donna’s mother. This woman never yielded to anyone and was not timid before anyone. Even now, years after her death, going into the kitchen, Donna thought she smelled tobacco smoke mixed with the aroma of coffee, and she was thinking that if she turned around, she would see her mother with a cigarette in her hand and a newspaper, tapping lightly on the cigarette with her index finger. She would start reading jokes from the newspaper to her daughter and laughing out loud with a hoarse cough.
Donna had been afraid of her mother all her life and was afraid to admit it to her too. Her father was the only man who managed to calm his wife’s fervor. He was quiet and inconspicuous, but whatever whirlwind of emotions was born inside his wife, he found the right words, and the volcano subsided, stopped, and the inhabitants of Pompeii continued to live. “Save yourselves, inhabitants of Pompeii,” he would say when his wife began to lose her temper. Father was gone, and the apartment where Donna had lived all her life became empty, but she no longer cared. The coffin silence was unbearable at first, but the woman got used to it too.
On her way back from work, she usually turned on two televisions at once, one in her room and the other in the kitchen. It felt like there was someone else in the apartment besides her. Her work took all her strength, but that was the woman’s salvation. Donna worked most of her life in the library, surrounded by books. She spent her spare time reading touching stories about love and dreaming that one day she could know this mysterious feeling. But when illness took her mother down, Donna quit the job. She was by her parents’ side all the time, learning to care for people, learning to tolerate resentment and smile, learning understanding and compassion.
Her mother was capricious and used to throw everything at her, refusing to take her medicine. It was hard to bear, but it was even harder for the woman when her mother begged her daughter to give her more medicine. Exhausted from the pain, Donna had been through it all. And after losing her parents, she realized she wanted to continue this work. What else could she do? Read novels? But this way, she could feel useful, needed, at least by someone. Donna applied for a job at a private nursing home for the elderly, Happy Years. The requirements specified that she should have experience working with the elderly and sick people in institutions of a similar direction. Although she had no experience in such work, she had personal experience. She was well aware of the attention that was needed for the elderly men and women who could not take care of themselves at home. These people needed help and support from people like Donna, and she went to this job not because of money, but out of the call of her heart.
Over time, Donna had become a major asset to the Happy Years nursing home. People spoke very highly of her personally and her work, and often, relatives, knowing that their relative would be taken care of by Donna, chose this retirement home. But not everyone living in the home was of advanced age. One day, a man who was barely 60 years old was brought to the nursing home: Charles, a former professional athlete who had suffered a stroke. From an active and healthy man who used to run five kilometers every morning with his dog on a leash, he had turned into a helpless child. That’s what Donna called the people who needed her. She often said that they were her children.
But Charles’s wife, Tiffany, who had brought him here, called him otherwise. Tiffany looked a little over 40 and was very effective. Bright red lips matched the lacquered high-heeled shoes and a red purse, which certainly was worth as much as a few of Donna’s salaries. Though she was earning good money, the woman briefly outlined the essence of the case: Charles had suffered a stroke and turned into a vegetable. Donna was disgusted by the word; she hated him terribly. When she looked into the eyes of her mentees, she always saw in them a sea of human passions, their worries, needs, and sufferings. No one had the right to call a man such a term, not to mention his wife. But this gorgeous, beautiful woman called her husband this terrible way.
Tiffany, meanwhile, added that she would like to provide her husband with the care he needs, but because of her busy schedule, she couldn’t devote much time to his needs. Therefore, knowing the positive reviews about the place, she would like to place Charles here so that he could spend his happy years within its walls. The director of the nursing home introduced Donna to Tiffany as the best employee and said that she would be the one to take care of Charles.
When Donna first saw Charles, it was impossible to take her eyes off him. A tall man with handsome features was completely unlike any of the residents of the nursing home. The muscular, handsome man was sitting in a wheelchair, looking down. Discussing the new patient with the director, Donna inquired about his rehabilitation program. After all, the man was still young, and surely there were special recommendations for him to return to normal life. But she was surprised when the director answered that his case was serious; rehabilitation was unlikely to be possible. And in addition, Charles’s wife said that it was not necessary; all they had to do was provide the man with proper care.
Donna realized that Tiffany wouldn’t mind her husband staying here and in this state forever. But Donna did not want that. She took the initiative and responsibility into her own hands. At first, she spoke with the man for a long time. Over time, she noticed that his eyes came alive whenever she spoke to him.
Then, after a while, Charles himself began to try to talk. At first, he could only mumble unintelligibly, but Donna managed to understand him. The whole nursing home watched as Donna brought Charles back to life day by day. Almost a year later, he was getting on his feet unsteadily, but he was already able to make out separate words.
Two years later, Charles, limping slightly, left the walls of the nursing home. But he did not go to his wife; he went to Donna. With his arrival, the apartment seemed to come alive, became cozier, filled with light and love. When Charles came to his home to get some of his things, Donna stayed waiting for him in a cab. She heard what he said to Tiffany as he left their house: “I wish you had someone like Donna, not someone like you, by your side in time of need.” Charles closed the door behind him and limped off to the cab, where the woman he loved was waiting for him.
Meanwhile, Tiffany stood by the window, watching as Charles put his bag of belongings in the trunk and sat in the back seat. Almost a year later, Tiffany caught a glimpse of Charles on the street. He was still walking with a limp and holding a woman under his arm. Tiffany, seeing her ex-husband, felt her cheek twitch nervously, and her fingers clenched involuntarily. After the divorce, he had taken half of their fortune, which Tiffany had already mentally spent on her own needs. But she was afraid that this was not the end because Charles had promised that his lawyers were already working to deprive the ex-wife of the benefits she enjoyed thanks to her ex-husband’s name.
Tiffany looked at the happy couple and thought, was she any worse than that wretched old woman? What had she done wrong in her life that she ended up like that? The answer to all these questions was on the surface, but there was no way Tiffany would have accepted it.
Meanwhile, Donna did not ask herself any questions. She simply lived for the sake of her beloved, gave him her joy, her care, her warmth. And Charles gratefully accepted it and did everything in his power to make the woman who had become the meaning of his life happy.
