The man’s optimistic outlook on his own life is simply, amazing, and it’d, touched everybody who was around him, translated…
“Is death a taboo for you?”, he’d blinked his right eye. Through the translations, he’d felt, that he’d, lived for more than he could’ve ever expected. “Is there something you want to do?”, he’d replied, “I want to go back to my alma mater to smell the flowers.”
He studied in Danjiang University and started working there, due to his illness, he’d filed for early retirement. The year he’d spent in Danjiang University, the most unforgettable were the years he’d fallen in love. The biggest sight of the school were the temple lights classrooms filled with the flowers and the birdsongs, with the flowers planted all around the sections, blooming as the seasons came, especially the Japanese pittosporum.
The bus specially built to chauffeur the physically handicapped individuals parked inside the school. The back door of the bus swung open, the heavyset wheelchair came down. Three people exited from the bus, a translator for him who’s a good friend of his, and two other caretakers, nurses’ aides: one pushed along a basket with the machine that got rid of his saliva; another hauled the respirator, it’s such, a grand entrance he’d made.
he chose to live like this…photo from online…
The trip to see the flowers was so filled by challenges, passing the path with the azaleas next to the classes, we’d stopped at a gazebo to rest, a nurse stabilized his neck, another took out the machines, to get rid of his drool, and this was repeated, very often.
We’d gone to the place where he and his girlfriend used to stroll to, to before the Australian laurel. The Australian laurel was similar to the sweet olives, we’d thought it was the sweet olives. They’d gone strolling across the campus, and smelled the flowers. He’d enjoyed the smells, not too strong, not too bland, just right.
He stayed focused, smelling the flowers, and looked like he was, deep in thought, was that really a smell from his memories?
At the end of smelling the flowers, he’d told us what he wanted—he’d wanted to return to his former office.
The office was not too far off, it’s a path he was, familiar with. “Hearing the water, you know where you are now?”, the wheelchair slid downward, and as he’d traveled down the slope, he knew, that he was almost there at the office. With the automatic door opening, everybody there, all his coworkers were surprised, they’d all, leapt out of their desk chairs. And, a female colleague also rushed up, bent over, wanted to touch him, with the assistance from all his coworkers, they shook hands, “my mother misses you too!”, yeah, they were friends for over thirty years, and became more like families, they’d even known one another’s parents. Another coworker hollered, “Could you have, gotten crystals on your nails?”, they’d rushed up, turns out, there was a Australian laurel that’s fallen onto his hand, and, it did, resemble the manicure nail art all right.
“Do you want to say something to everybody?”, he’d blinked, and through the translator, he said, “Hi everybody”, and immediately, everybody shot back, “It’s too cliché”, his coworkers hollered, one more line; he’d asked, “Who’s sitting in my desk, drag him out, and off with his head…”, we’d all burst out laughing.
But, I’d also noted how the female coworker who’d sat next to him was wiping her tears away, I understood her. A person who’d been immobilized, who couldn’t talk, smiled on endlessly; the blind man with ALS before us, didn’t have any fear, no pain shown on his face, only smiled too much, and this smile had, moved us all.
I’d laughed and cried with him, and my moods swung between the happiness and the sorrows repeatedly………
And so, this, is the optimism of a man with ALS, he’d lived with the illness, and, he’d lived for longer than he had expected, which was probably why he saw every day he gets as a brand new blessing, that, was why he could carry this sense of optimism to living his own life, even IF he was ill.