My Musings on Life, Poetry and Short Stories

It Was in the fall of 1960 that John and Melisa were married. Being the son of a very successful business man, John was very educated and well mannered.During his tenure in the Law School he met Melisa and they fell in Love. Soon after their marriage John started his own Law Firm and was doing very well due to his excellent nature and dedication to work, which attracted the clients. They had everything that a young couple would aspire for.

Melisa got pregnant in the middle of next year and was looking forward to the baby around November 1961. She underwent the routine tests and was found ok till the 5th month. On a fateful day in August during a routine examination the Gynecologist noticed something wrong with the foetus and paged for the Senior Consultant. After hours of checks and cross checks they found that there was a congenital deformity in the heart of the foetus. This news broke the hearts of John and Melisa and they were dumbfounded. They couldn’t understand why this was happening to them.They enquired the Doctors about the chances of the child making it and how bad was the condition as to its life expectancy. The Doctor's diagnosis was that the condition was bad in that there was no known remedy for corrective action and the life expectancy was perhaps 6 to 8 years only. This pitted John and Melisa against their worst dilemma of their life. They consoled themselves with great difficulty and decided to have the baby and give it their unfettered love and affection for as long as they could with the grace of GOD.

Adrian was born in November and he was a handsome baby resembling his Dad and his mom’s blue eyes. It was impossible to even think that such a lovely baby was destined for a very short life. As a child, Adrian was very sharp and intelligent. He learnt to speak and read alphabets very early for children of his age and was in pre-school when he was 3 years. The symptoms of his ailment began to appear then gradually. He started getting very tired and was panting for breath with any little activity. Could not run like other children. It is then they decided to slowly break the news about his illness to him. They assured him that they would do everything in their power to get him cured. Adrian was not very disturbed to learn about his malady and seemed reconciled to it. After six months he could not stand the strain of attending the school and the journey to school really hurt him. So they decided to get him a tutor at home. As a bright child he managed to do very well in all his subjects. John and Melisa never stopped praying and hoped for some miracle to save their child. Adrian was very fond of his parents and loved them very much. One day Adrian talked about one of his school mates to Melisa. He said that his friend was an orphan and that he was staying with the friends of his erstwhile parents. He talked about how the boy missed his parents and wished they were alive. On his seventh birthday Adrian felt very uncomfortable and was taken to the Hospital to be put on ventilators. John and Melisa felt a creepy feeling that the end was near. When Adrian could get his breathing to some level of comfort they kissed him and told him that they loved him so much that they cannot live without him. Adrian looked them in the eye and said “ I know you love me and want to give me everything. You can still do it Dad! There are kids in my school who have no parents and would love to have you as theirs. Why don’t you take one of them and give them what you cannot give me. Is it Ok Dad?” They were spell bound by this suggestion.
After 3 days it was all over and John and Melisa adopted a very small baby from the neighborhood orphanage and named him Adrian.