THOSE AWAKE... 

By Tessa Harvey

    Later, two nurses, Ava and the day nurse, Ellen Scott carefully washed and dressed the old lady. Gently they placed her in a recliner chair and wheeled her through into a warm inviting lounge area. 

    Mia's face lit up. How wonderful, she marvelled to be part of a family again. To feel warm and safe and best of all, free.

    Yvonne and Imelda were changing her bed. Grayson was immersed in his work on the computer. He looked up with a smile. "You are going to be a great-aunt in a few months." Mia regarded the young man with joy. "Well," she breathed, "how lovely."

    "Tell me, how did you come to accept your wife back?"

"She came back by herself," he announced thoughtfully. Also, her dreams of living in love and beauty with a different man had died and fallen into ashes and darkness."

"You know," he reflected thoughtfully, "I was not a good husband. To me, she was just an ornament."

    Gray flushed. "Often I did not even see her. It was exciting when Alison was born, but then it seemed only the baby was her focus - and mine was work."

    Yvonne came into the room and put a hand on her husband's shoulder. "Like Joseph in the Bible, he accepted me and my unborn child. Unlike Joseph and 

Mary, my child was conceived in rebellion. Growing up, everything revolved around me. And I was doing the same with Alison."

    "It's God who has changed us," continued Gray, swivelling around on his computer chair to hug his wife. But I don't understand why Dad said 'Those that are left will soon be silenced.'"