That Morning

She was a young and lovely woman, so young to be suspected of having a deadly disease. She was waiting for her test results anxiously on that morning. On the previous day, she had gone through various tests to investigate the cause of her unresolved fever. “I’ve had it since a few months ago. It’s on and off, doesn’t seem that it’s going to go away,” she said when I asked her about the fever.

The medical team had already surrounded her. She looked from face to face. Then she gave us a warm smile when the consultant started to open her file. “I’m sorry to tell you this, you have Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. It’s already in the end stage and nothing much that we can do.” She stopped smiling. There was silence and nobody moved. Not even a single word came from her mouth. We all waited. Suddenly she burst into tears. “Am I going to die?” she asked. “I’m sorry there is nothing much that we can do,” the consultant replied.

We stood around her while she cried. It took about five minutes before she was able to calm herself a bit. She brushed away the remaining tears at the corners of her eyes and looked at us again. “It’s alright, I’ll use my remaining life to the fullest.” She tried to smile at us from her sadness. We moved to the next patient, leaving her there. Sometimes, there is nothing much that we can do and we have to leave things to God. Wallahua’lam.