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original stories about heroes

"FLAWS"

Their names are Henry and Sarah. They have lived long lives. They have loved for a lifetime, and yet have not spoken in many years. Today may indeed be their last chance. Sarah is dying and, with her, so is Henry's heart.


Henry has been driving for hours. He can barely see the road. His vision isn't what it used to be and his glasses are fogged with tears. He is going to tell Sarah that he loves her and to say good-bye. His heart is aching. All those wasted years. Why hadn't he ever told her that he loved her? Why was he so afraid? Will he be too late? So many questions and so few answers.

He knows he should have gone back for his heart pills. He can already feel the tugs. His doctor told him if he didn't take his pills he could die. His children would be angry at him for not going back. They might think him a senile old man who should be put in a home. But none of them would ever understand that some things in life are more important than living or dying. Things like love and words that need to be said before it is too late.

stories

He heard it from a friend of a friend of a friend. Sarah is dying. His beautiful Sarah, whom he had loved from afar for his entire life. Sarah who he had been afraid to ask out. A plain woman to many, but to him the most beautiful woman in the world. The woman he had wanted to marry, who he had never even asked out. The woman he wanted to spend his life with, whose hand he had only held once. The woman he had wanted to grow old with and who he had grown old without. She was dying, but before she died, he wanted to see her and to say those three little words that meant the whole world. He was going to tell the woman he loved, the woman he had always loved, that he loved her.


story


A few miles back he had nearly crashed his car into a ditch. He isn't supposed to drive. His son would be mad. They had let him keep his car just to let him keep his self respect, but there was an understanding that, while his car would remain his, he would never drive it. It would simply be there to remind him of how things used to be. Before his weary old body had begun to fall apart. Before his vision had started to go.

His children tell him that his mind is going. That he can no longer remember things. That maybe they should find a nice safe place for him to live. A home. Like where Sarah is now. He thinks they are wrong. Maybe he can't always remember what day it is, but Henry thinks that is simply because he doesn't care what day it is. His memory is perfect. He can remember everything about Sarah. The way her eyes sparkle when she smiles, the first time they met, and every chance he had to say those words but chickened out. No, his memory is fine. He may not be as sharp as a tack, but he will never forget that first kiss.

As for the pills, Henry wonders if maybe he forgot them on purpose. But then he realizes it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is getting to Sarah in time.

heroes


At last he sees the sign ahead. "Welcome to Sunny Acres, A Great Place to Live." He wonders about that. Where is the sun? He had been crying so hard that he hadn't even realized it had begun to rain. And a great place to live? If only that were true.

He pulls up to a building. His vision is so cloudy that he can't find a space so he simply parks in front of the entrance. His body is definitely not what it used to be. He can barely climb out the door. What was once so easy, is now so hard. He reaches back for his cane. And into the rain he walks, taking each step with great effort. He smiles a little thinking of himself as a new born baby, learning to take his first step. Mom and Dad would have been so proud.

It might have only been twenty steps to the front door, but to Henry it was a mile. His children would have been amazed to see him. The man who had barely been out of his wheelchair for years was walking in the middle of a rain storm, blowing winds and all. He struggled against the wind, and although it was strong, Henry was not about to let something as insignificant as rain, wind, and his failing body stop him from doing what he had come to do. There was no more time for excuses. This was his last chance.

He found the door during a flash of lightning. He read the name of the home on the door again. "Welcome to Sunny Acres, A Great Place to Live." Henry mumbled, "Sunny Acres, bah humbug." It was a joke, but Henry didn't feel like laughing.

Henry had a hard time getting the door open, and once he did the wind tore it from his hands. He simply didn't have the strength to fight the wind to close it and so the door remained open in the blowing winds.

Henry wandered into a building, the kind of building he had been afraid to enter for many years. Knowing that once he stepped inside the doors, he would only be leaving once, and that when he left, his eyes would be closed and his body would be motionless. This was the kind of place where he had begged his children not to send him. This is the place that he had told them he was afraid to die in.

Henry looked around. It was so antiseptic and sterile. There were the pretenses at making this look like a home, but it looked more like a cross between the lobby of a cheap hotel and a hospital emergency room. Unfortunately, the one sense he had that still functioned fine was his sense of smell. Despite the attempts to hide the odors of death, vomit and urine, he could still smell them despite the smell of bleach and a heavy dose of something that smelled like artificial flowers in a can. This place is his worst nightmare come true, and he knows that soon his children plan on "convincing him" that he would be "happier" in a place like this. Henry makes a promise to himself, before that time comes, he will simply allow himself to die at home, comfortable in his own bed.

But the sad part is that Sarah is dying. That she is dying here. Part of Henry wants to run for the door, but of course Henry can't run. It's not just his body. Today is the most important day of his life. Today, he is finally going to find the courage to tell Sarah what he has wanted to say since that day so very long ago.

hero


Henry tries to pull himself together. He attempts to straighten his coat and hat. He tries to straighten his crooked old body. He walks up to the greeting station, which is basically a not-so-cleverly disguised nurse's station. He tries to speak, but his voice fails him. The nurse looks up. He instantly knows that she is thinking, "It's almost his time." Words fail him as he realizes how he must look. A frail old man, slouching onto his cane, bug-eyed glasses so thick they look like they were carved from the bottoms of Coke bottles, standing in front of the reception desk of a nursing home, soaking wet, with his lips moving but no words coming out.

He pulls himself together again. He says, "I'm here to see Sarah." The nurse asks, "Sarah who?" Henry realizes that he doesn't know what last name Sarah's children registered her under, so he says, "I'm sorry. I don't know whether she is registered under her maiden name or the name of the man she was married to twenty years ago." And so he gives them both. Henry's heart is in his throat as the nurse-slash-receptionist runs her finger down a list of names and room numbers. Is he too late? Finally the nurse's finger stops and she looks up....

The nurse says, "I'm sorry...." and Henry's heart jumps so hard he is nearly knocked from his feet. The nurse said something else but Henry had missed it. His hearing aide must have gotten wet. He asks her to repeat what she had said. She said, "I'm sorry... Sarah is in 207, but Sarah's condition is not good. We don't expect her to make it through the night." Henry asks if any of the family members are in with Sarah and the nurse checks the visitors log. She looks up and says, "It looks as though they came in yesterday, but none of them are here now." Then realizing she might have made a mistake, she asks if Henry is a member of her family. Henry says no, he is not related to Sarah, but says he has something he needs to tell her. The nurse says, "I am very sorry, but only members of the family are allowed to visit the guests." With that she gives Henry, Mr. Feeble Old Man in a soaking wet coat, a look that says don't even think of arguing with me and turns away.

Henry knows he has been dismissed. To the nurse this feeble old man has simply vanished off the face of the earth. He knows there is no sense in arguing. But Henry has waited too long; he has something that he wants to say to Sarah before it is too late. And he doesn't want her to die alone. So, remembering the time he and Sarah as kids had sneaked into the movie theater (it was black and white back then with Charlie Chaplin doing slapstick to make them all laugh), Henry simply sneaked in, which wasn't all that hard to do because, to the nurses, one little old man looks pretty much like the others. It was as though Henry was invisible. The nurses-slash-hospitality queens, or whatever they called them these days, saw him but simply ignored him.

Henry simply used his cane, actually trying to make a little more of a show of it for the benefit of the nurses than was necessary, and hobbled down the hallway. His heart was so full of sadness as he walked that hallway. These people, the patients, or as they call them these days, "the guests", were the people of his generation. These were the people who were children when he was a child. He marveled at the fact that when they were children that none of them had seen this coming. They were blind to this. When they dreamed of the future they dreamed of getting married, having children, successful careers, but none of them dreamed of the final reality: those who were lucky enough to live long enough would end up here. In a world where they were alone. A cold world of pain, hurt, and unspeakable smells. A world where when someone died, no one cared.

Despite his hurry to see Sarah, Henry stopped and look into the faces of all of those he saw. Wondering how many of them he had met during his lifetime. How many of the people in this sad new world were friends from years gone by. It was so sad, some of the patients could walk but most were in wheelchairs or bedridden. Those in wheelchairs were simply parked at random places in the hallway. Many simply staring at the walls and maybe dreaming about ... yesterdays...

When he reached room 207, Henry faltered. What was he about to see? Would it break his heart seeing Sarah like this? Indeed, would she have already passed on? In a place like this who was going to notice until it was time to change the sheets. Would he still love the woman whose face he had not seen in so many years?

Resolve set in. It was time. Time to set things right. Time to find the courage that had failed him for a lifetime.

Henry opened the door.

Inside was Sarah. She was laying on one of those hospital beds. There was none of the medical equipment that he had expected to see. Simply a bed, a chair, a few pictures on the wall, and Sarah laying on the bed. Her eyes were closed. So Henry simply looked at her. Her body was shrunken with age as was his. Her hair was no longer glossy, it would no longer fly in the wind, indeed it was now gray. Her face had wrinkles, and yet Henry found himself thinking that she was still the most beautiful woman in the world.

Henry moved over and sat his tired old body in the chair next to Sarah. He simply sat. He looked upon the woman he had loved for a lifetime. She was resting peacefully. He could see her chest rise and fall. She was sleeping. And so Henry sat and watched her. How long he had no idea. Maybe one hour, maybe ten, he didn't know. He simply enjoyed sitting here with the woman he loved.

He heard a voice. It was Sarah's voice. Calling to him in a dream. Henry... Henry... Henry???? With a start he realized he had fallen asleep in the chair and someone really was calling his name. It was Sarah. She was awake and she was looking at him, and she was smiling. It was the most beautiful smile that Henry had ever seen.

Henry did something he had not done since he was a child. He took Sarah's hand. She didn't try to pull away. Instead she held his hand in return with what little strength she had left.

Henry looked into Sarah's eyes and said something that he had wanted to say ever since that day so many years before. Henry said, "I love you... Sarah.. I have always loved you..."

Sarah didn't look shocked. Instead she smiled, gripped Henry's hand and held it a little tighter and said, "I love you, too, Henry. I have always loved you..."

Henry smiled for the first time in many years. But then sadness set in. He looked Sarah in the eyes and said, "Sarah, I am so sorry. I should have told you that first day. The day that you kissed me that one time as innocent children. I should have told you when we were teenagers. I should have told you when we were adults. But I didn't. You and I both married, but you were always the woman I loved so much that I could never tell you."

Sarah asked simply, "Why were you afraid, Henry?"

And so Henry looked into her eyes and said, "Sarah, in my life I have loved many women. But there was only one that I was so in love with that I was afraid to talk to her about it. That woman was you." And then he paused ... as though trying to find the right words...

Sarah said, "Come on Henry, you have come all this way to say it... Please, just tell me what you feel and you don't have to think about finding the right words.. Please tell me why you were afraid to tell me... Somehow I know that it is something I need to hear as much as you are afraid to tell me."

And so Henry said, "All my life I have wanted to tell you that I love you. I have wanted to tell you how beautiful I think you are. How just seeing you smile makes me feel warm all over. That with other people I can speak my mind, that I am not afraid, but with you I am afraid... "And again he hesitated.

"Henry....?"

"Sarah, when I talk to other women I am not afraid. I see the good parts in them, but I also see their flaws. But when I see you, the only flaws I see are mine."

And Henry became too choked up with tears to speak...

He kept mumbling something about her making him want to become a better man.

And finally Sarah understood. Henry had spent his whole life thinking he was not good enough for her. That he was unworthy of her love... It wasn't that he didn't love her... It was that he loved her so much that he was terrified of being rejected.

And Sarah understood, too, because she had always loved Henry. But seeing herself as a plain-looking woman, she had felt unworthy of his love...

And so she pulled Henry closer and said, "Henry, my whole life I have wanted to tell you I love you.. but I was afraid... because when I looked at you... I didn't see your flaws.. I saw mine...

But Henry, how can you look at me like that now. I am an old woman. My face is covered with wrinkles. My hair is gray."

And Henry said, "You are still the most beautiful woman I know. As we have aged so have my eyes. In your eyes I see the little girl I met as a child. In your face, I see the woman that I loved from afar. Each of those wrinkles represents a time in your life. A time when I loved you but never spoke the words. You hair is like silver, the color of angel's wings. Everything about you is beautiful... But I wonder what you see in me..."

And Sarah says.... "In your smile I see the little boy that I had a school girl crush on. In your face I see the strength of character that enabled you to be a good and kind man. In your eyes I see the man who I always felt would someday come to me as my knight in shining armor. Thank you for coming today, Henry. Thank you for giving me what I have wanted all my life, your love."

At this point they were both smiling and crying at the same time. They were tears of sadness for years missed and of joy for a newly blossoming love.

original stories about heroes

Henry's heart jumpedonce again when a nurse came in, reminding him again that he had forgotten his pills. Henry and Sarah both asked her to leave. She did, but with a rather bewildered expression on her face, perhaps thinking these old people are gonna drive me nuts one of these days. And secretly in her heart, hidden like it is in the hearts of many of the caretakers, behind all of the coldness and uncaring attitude, was her secret fear that she might live long enough to grow old and come here, too.

Henry turned back to Sarah, and said, "There is something else I have been wanting to ask you for a lifetime." Sarah looked up bewildered as Henry reach into his coat. First, he pulled out a dozen roses, which were now missing many petals, and a small box. Henry placed the roses on the bed next to her and said, "These are for you. I have wanted to give you roses every day of my life, but this is the first time I found the courage." Sarah smiled and said they were the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen, and indeed they were, because of the man who had given them to her. Then he opened the little box.

original stories about heroes

Inside the box were two rings, one a man's and the other a woman's. They were a matched set of wedding rings with little hearts on them. Just like the ones that Sarah had jokingly pointed to in a store window when they were children and said, "Oh Henry, will you marry me?"

After all these years Henry had not only remembered, he had bought the rings, or at least had some made to look exactly like them. They even had the little hearts.

Henry then pulled out a piece of paper that was folded up real small so it could fit in the ring box. Henry looked into Sarah's eyes and said, "I want to ask you something that I have wanted to ask you since we were children. Something I have always been afraid to ask. I bought these rings long ago, but I never had the courage to ask you if we could wear them. I knew at the time you meant it as a joke, but I never forgot.

Over the years, I wrote many notes and letters to you and tore them all up. Probably hundreds of letters, and all of them went into the trash because I could not find the right words. Finally, I found the right words. I put them on this little piece of paper and promised myself that someday I would read this note to you and ask you to wear this wedding ring."

Slowly, carefully, Henry opened the little piece of paper. He unfolded it with shaking hands. It seemed to take forever. Sarah was waiting expectantly to hear the words that had taken Henry so many years and so much work to come up with.

Finally the paper was unfolded. Henry smoothed it carefully. He handed Sarah the note. And, despite her eyesight not being what it once was, she read the words Henry had written so long ago. The note simply said, "Will You Marry Me?"

Sarah looked into Henry's eyes and said the word he had waited a lifetime to hear. She said, "Yes."

Henry, whose fingers were shaking worse than ever, carefully placed the ring on Sarah's finger. In turn, she placed the other ring gently onto Henry's. Both of them were smiling despite their age and withered bodies. They were at once the children of long ago, and the adults of yesterday, with love in their hearts.

In their hearts, Henry and Sarah were now married. It was now and forever. It didn't take a ceremony. There were no guests and there was no little piece of paper except a brittle little piece of paper sitting on the blanket, and yet theirs was a marriage that on one hand lasted only a day, and on the other would last for all eternity.

Henry could feel Sarah starting to slip. Indeed he could feel the pains in his chest because of his forgotten medication. And yet both of them simply wanted to share the moment. And so they held each other without words. Sarah asked Henry to climb onto the bed next to her, so they could hold each other close. Henry did so with a bit of a struggle, but soon he was laying next to his wife on the bed.

Sarah held Henry close and said, "Henry, I don't think I have much time left, and somehow I know without you saying it that neither do you. My voice is starting to fail, but I want to ask one last favor. When I was little girl and we were friends, you used to tell me stories to make me smile and laugh. Could you tell me some of those stories now? I wanna feel like a little girl again. Lets pretend it's bedtime and you are telling me bedtime stories..."

Henry said he would.

And Sarah spoke one last time. "I love you, Henry. We may have missed out on a life together here on earth, but I know we will spend life as husband and wife in heaven. This is not the end, it is only the beginning. I love you, Henry."

Those were Sarah's last words. She laid there listening as Henry told stories, some of them real from their childhood, some of them make-believe, and the stories about what was yet to come when they found themselves once again in heaven. Sometime during the night, Sarah passed away in Henry's arms with a smile on her face. Henry's heart gave its final beat shortly after and he too passed away. He died a happy man.

The local newspaper ran a story about them for a few days. A story that their children cut out and kept in their family albums to pass on to their children. The story was a story about how Sarah and Henry had been found laying in each others arms. That they had both been wearing wedding rings and smiling. And that they had been holding hands. When their hands had been pulled apart the doctor had found a note that said "Will You Marry Me?" The story went on to tell how the families had been so touched when they heard about this that they had asked a local minister to do a double ceremony. Henry and Sarah were buried together. But first the minister had pronounced them man and wife. The story had been so overwhelming that the entire town came to the ceremony to remember two people that they had all forgotten. They covered the entire area with roses.

A little boy and a little girl were playing in the cemetery a few years later. They were just walking around and doing the things that children do, wrestling, playing with frogs and silly stuff. The little boy stopped to pick up a rose that had grown up in front of one of the tombstones. The little girl stopped to rest. Sitting there, she read what it said. Inscribed on the stone were the words "Henry and Sarah, husband and wife, they lived a lifetime, and loved forever."

original stories about heroes

The little girl said, "Hey, Henry, those are our names. It says we were married." They both giggled and laughed. Henry looked into Sarah's beautiful eyes, and with all the mock seriousness he could muster he knelt down on one knee and said, "Sarah will you marry me?" Sarah, ever the little actress, said, "Yes, Henry, I will marry you." They both laughed the laughter of children and ran off to play.

MORAL OF THE STORY

Don't let your fear of your own flaws keep you from telling people what you feel. Nothing feels worse than not having said the words.

Please thank the kind people who edited this story so you would not have to see Teddy's Typo's... Angle0001,  BaddFroggy and Badddcritter. Graphics courtesy of Spooky2707

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