Happy Birthday Mavis.

Rose couldn’t sleep, her thoughts were of her husband lying in hospital. He had suffered a heart attack. This was a very frightening time for Rose, for Bernie was the stronger of the two of them. He was always there for her and the children. He kept himself fit and healthy, always the calm one in a crisis, he would say "Calm down, no one has died have they?" little did he know how close he had come to the truth. Rose made a list of all the things to take to the hospital. She checked the list over and over again even though Bernie was very poorly she still wanted him to look nice and clean.

The house felt so empty, Rose had never been alone in the house before. There had always been one of the children about, but now with two of them at university and the older one married, even her thoughts seemed to echo through the house.

"Where have I put my gold necklace", she wondered, she had misplaced it about six weeks ago , and didn’t have the heart to mention it to Bernie. He would be very upset if he knew, it was a special present for her 40^th birthday.

Rose had a smile on her face as she thought about the morning when Bernie had brought her breakfast in bed. On the tray was a single red rose in a small vase,

"A rose for a rose" he said as he put the breakfast tray down. "Happy birthday darling" he said giving her a kiss on the cheek. He walked out of the bedroom. with a smile on his face. Unknown to Rose, Bernie had put the gold necklace in a small box of after eight mints and sealed it up again, leaving it on the breakfast tray. Rose looked at the box of mints, she thought surely these can’t be for my birthday. Bernie would never forget to buy me a present. She remembered how she had been near to tears all that day until Bernie asked her if she was opening her chocolates. She opened them offering them to him first .

"You have the first one" he said, as Rose took a chocolate out of the box her birthday present , the gold necklace fell out. She couldn’t believe her eyes, she remembered how she had laughed and cried at the same time. Now her lovely romantic man was lying in a hospital bed fighting for his life..

Rose decided against driving to the hospital. It was very difficult to find a parking space, there was a bus that went into the hospital grounds. On the way the bus passed a shop that sold house hold goods. Rose couldn’t help noticing a clothes maiden, it was pine with blue plastic coated rods going across, it folded down when not in use. She had one the same when the children were small,she had saved some green shield stamps to get it. Her friend Mavis, would call round for coffee, with her children ,they played at making a den with the maiden.. Sadly Mavis died two years ago. Rose had been thinking of Mavis quite a lot recently, then she suddenly realised today would have been her birthday. Rose felt a slight warm breeze on her face, "where did that come from she thought," it is rather chilly outside.

When Rose arrived on the ward, the nurse informed her that the doctor had examined Bernie . The tests showed a positive improvement."Your daughter and her husband are on their way if for any reason they miss you, they will carry on to your house". Rose thanked the nurse, she was so pleased with Bernie’s progress. she couldn’t stop kissing him. "Slow down old girl" he murmured, "you will have the other men jealous," even though he was smiling he still looked poorly with all the tubes and wires attached to him.

Rose had brought him all kinds of goodies ; mints to keep his mouth moist ,chocolates for his sweet tooth and magazines if he was able to read.

"What are you like Rose," he murmured. He need not have said that, for he knew that Rose fussed over all the family. Just at that moment the nurse came along with some medication , "you need to take this now Bernie then try to relax , not too much talking please!" .Rose saw the look on the nurses face and thought to herself message received . She knew that the staff worked very hard and were very loyal and caring people .but didn’t they realise that this man was the most important person in Roses life. After giving Bernie a few cuddles and kisses when the nursing staff weren’t looking. Rose decided to go home and let Bernie rest, she had thought of a few things to do before the family arrived.

When travelling home on the bus. For some reason she still couldn’t get Mavis out of her mind. She murmured to herself happy birthday Mavis hoping that no one on the bus heard her.

On arriving home, Rose felt a funny sensation .She opened the front door and felt a breeze , it was as though she had left a window open upstairs. She went upstairs slowly, worried about what she might find. She knew that all the windows were closed when she left the house. As she reached the top of the stairs, the breeze was warm and the staircase glowed in a beautiful yellow light. Rose ran in to each bedroom, every thing was fine, "what is it"? she thought, just then she saw something glittering on the small table on the landing. She couldn’t believe her eyes, here surrounded by this beautiful warm yellow light was her gold necklace. The one she had misplaced all those weeks ago. The warm breeze that I am feeling now she thought, is the same feeling that I had when I was thinking of Mavis earlier. Tears rolled down Rose’s cheeks she had no control over them. She felt so calm and at peace with her thought. She sensed this was a message from her dear friend Mavis , telling her not to worry , that Bernie will soon be fit and well again.

                                                                       by Marie Staniforth

  Happy Birthday Mavis    click play button for streaming audio