Genuine Gems (GRATITUDE)

2) Take My Heart ... It Was Always Yours

Husein looks away from the fourth floor window. He has been watching snowflakes tumbling from the midnight sky. He envies them for their freedom.

Inside the small room, a lamp throws out pale golden beams of light, casting a halo over the tiny form in the small hospital bed. Aisha, his wife of thirty-five years, lies there in uneasy slumber.

Throughout the wintry night Hussein keeps alert. He watches her face, notices the lines that life put there now gently being erased, smoothing out, reminding him of the time before the accident. In his heart Hussein fears that when all the lines are gone, she might go too. The pain of this knowledge weighs heavy upon him, as through stooping an old soldier's shoulder until he is hunched over, trying to protect his very heart from breaking.

Hussein has been the reserved and quiet type all his life. Sure enough he loved and appreciated his wife and everything she did for him. But he hardly ever felt the need to tell her so. He knew that she knew. Besides he thought it was his right to have breakfast on time, washed and ironed clothes every day, a warm and loving atmosphere at home...
The doctors had said that, there was a very slim chance for her to wake up

He wanders to her bedside and and sits in the chair the nurse placed there for him earlier. He misses her smile and her running around the house. He misses the sound of Ger bangles. He thinks of all the times he had come home late. A wave of guilt sweeps over him as he remembers how little of his time he gave to the one who loved him the most. He watches Aisha as she sleeps, he admires the innocence on her face, notes the gentle fluttering of her eyelids as she dreams. He prays from the depth of his heart.

"O Allah! Give me my Aisha! Please don't take her away... I want to tell her so many things... "

The pain of anticipated loss Sears through his heart and he closes his eyes, reaching for her hand, which lays limp on top of the neatly folded blankets. He grips her fingers in hi a and squeezes them gently. O how one takes the bounties of Allah for granted! Hussein releases his grip and strokes the papery skin of her hand. He mutters to her in Arabic mindless that, in all their years together, she never could get to grips with the intricacies of his native tongue.

Hussein's word are lost as his head slumps to the bed and he mutters his pain and love into the warm hospital bedding. He raises his hands in humble supplication and his heart liberates all the feelings held as captivates within.

It is dawn when Hussein wakes. The bright morning light ha somehow transformed the soft lamp glow to a garish yellow and he reaches up to snap off the light. As he leans over her, he feels that the lines that life put on Aisha's face, the pain and the laughter, are gone. The shock steals the breath from his lungs and his hand rushes to to his throat to coax it to suck in oxygen. He gasps and splutters, unsteady on his feet he fears he will fall. He steadies himself, swallows air. With one hand on the bedrail he leans over, holds his cheeks just inches from her and waits.

Several seconds pass before he is rewarded with the soft fluttering of her breath against the roughness of his old face. Gratitude washes over every limb in his body. Holding her hand gently in his, he dips his other hand into his pocket. His fingers grip his little gift and he folds it deep into his palm. With trembling fingers, he gently opens her hand and covers it with his. His words are barely a whisper.

"You have been the light of my life " he brushes her forehead with his coarse fingers. " take my heart. It was always yours." When his hand leaves hers, he closes her fingers around his gift.

Warm tears escape his eyes and fall on her face. His tears and humble prayers make their way to the mighty throne and Aisha opens her eyes.

"Alhamdulillah! She woke up! " he screams. Tears of gratitude flow from his eyes. Thirty-five years...
Precious years... swirl like snapshot before his eyes, as he appreciates every second of their life spent together.

The gleam of a lifetime's loyalty and undying love glistens on her forehead. Her fingers feel the solid red heart in her palm and she smiles at him. A smile brimming with gratitude....