May 26 - Margaret's Story

For all intents and purposes, Margaret's only contact with the outside world was with Louise, the day nurse who had been taking care of her for the past several months.
It was a lonely job. There were never any visitors. Margaret had never married, and didn't have any children. Her youngest brother had died in a tractor accident when he was 10, her older brother had died in the war, and her younger sister had died of lung cancer more than 20 years ago. Even most of her friends had passed away.
She always looked forward to talking with Louise, but her speech had been so hard to understand since the stroke that she usually let Louise do most of the talking. She would tell her about her nieces and nephews, and about Spartacus, her Jack Russell terrier. And almost every day, Margaret's main contribution to the conversation would be to ask Louise when she was going to find herself a nice man and get married.
Margaret didn't want to nag her, but she didn't have family of her own. Who else was she going to nag? Besides, she had the benefit of hindsight. Getting to talk to Louise was like getting to talk to her 30-year-old self and give her advice--advice from somebody who knew how it was probably going to end if things didn't change.
She could see that Louise was a romantic, just like she'd been at her age, waiting for love at first sight like in the movies. All through her childhood and on into adulthood, she'd been looking forward to the ray of sunlight that would one day shine on The One who'd been chosen especially for her.
Only The One never came along. There had been plenty of others who could have made her happy, but she'd never let herself give any of them a real shot. She was too busy pining for The One to realize that He didn't exist, not really. It was a fairy tale. In real life, at some point you just realized you were with somebody good. And maybe he wasn't The One, but you would decide you were ready anyway, and he would decide he was ready, and you would take a chance. You would shape him, and he would shape you, and together you would become The One. She got that now. Hell, she'd gotten that years ago, but by then it was too late.
But maybe not for Louise. And so every day she would ask her when she was going to find someone and get married and settle down, and every day Louise would just laugh and tell her she didn't know and then change the subject.