Love & Nostalgia

Michael's tall frame stood by the whiteboard and he was fiddling a marker, somewhat carelessly. Word after word poured from his mouth. The class was as silent as a graveyard. Once or twice, a whisper was heard at the back of the class or supressed laughter. Mike simply threw a harsh rebuke that direction and continued teaching.

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"We are almost rounding up the class." Mike said at length. "Now we go to our word of the day. Can someone remind me the word I said was to be our word of the day at the beginning of the lesson?”

“Nostalgia, sir.” Various voices chorused at once.

“No kids. No chorus answer. Yes, Jane, can you tell us the word of the day and give us it's meaning with some examples?”

Jane was one of Mike's brightest students. As she stood, Mike noticed her face had a dreary, tired look.

“Nostalgia, sir. It means 'a wistful or sentimental yearning for return to some past period or condition'."

“Can you make a sentence with the word nostalgia?”

Jane scratched her blond scalp.

“Eh…'Theo was full of nostalgia when he remembered the time he used to spend together with his late wife.”

Mike kept mute for a few moments. He was looking downwards. He finally snapped out of the haze and replied:

“That's a good example. You can sit.”

After the class Mike sat in his office writing up lesson notes and then marking homework exercise books. While he did he cast his mind back to Jane's reply in class and the picture of what his dad told him of his life together with his mom unfolded in his mind's eye. They two were very close and a strong bond held them together. His dad, Neville, was a captain in the military and his mom a nurse in one of the hospitals. Despite their busy schedules they still found time for each other. His dad often recounted to Mike the blissful life they both had together. As he told the story to Mike, his eyes were lit up with a kind of deep longing. Mike could feel his father's nostalgic longing for his late wife. She was the great love of his life, he said in a teary voice. She meant everything to him and they both were always content to dwell under the shadow of each other's love. Spending time together provided an incredible delight. As Neville told this story to Mike, Mike felt like he was at the exact scene where these things happened, watching. Neville talked passionately about how the two of them met.

One day Mike's father, Neville, a young man of about 22 was rushed into the hospital bleeding profusely. He had a road accident. The surgeon was not sure whether he would live. The surgeon said a blood transfusion was required for the surgery. But the hospital couldn't make the transfusion and needed someone who had the same blood group as the young man to donate blood. It was obvious the young man didn't have any kin close by. While the issue was being debated, a tall, blond young nurse just walked in. She said she would donate blood for the young man to have the surgery. Fortunately she was a universal blood donor and in a matter of hours Mike's dad was out of surgery.

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The young nurse, named Everett brought his medications to him one afternoon. The young man introduced himself as Neville and they both talked for a while. Neville had no living kin. Both his parents died in a plane crash when he was little and he had no siblings. He only had one uncle, his mother's brother but he would have nothing to do with him because his mom married against the wish of her family.

After hearing his story the nurse decided to take care of him. After he recovered, he moved back to his town. He didn't get the chance to say goodbye. Neville joined the military 8 months after his hospital discharge. Sometime after he became a military officer, Neville foiled the kidnapping of a young woman with his colleagues. He and his colleagues killed all four kidnappers and rescued the young woman. When he removed the blindfold and the ducktape from her eyes and mouth, it was Everett, the young nurse who'd taken care of him at the hospital.

They both courted a few years and then tied the knot. Their marriage was blissful and they were attached to each other like a tree and it's bark. Her husband cared deeply for her and made sure she was always happy. She, too, reciprocated that deep love. He stayed with his wife even though they couldn't have a child for years. Neville knew he had to get a son to preserve the lineage of his parents but he'd never leave his wife for another.

A child finally came in their 15th year together. Sadly his wife passed away from childbirth complications. He was devastated and mourned deeply for her. After the funeral he decided not to remarry but raise the child he had with the great love of his life however best he could.

For the time being, He didn't feel the sorrow too deeply because of his son. But he began to feel the absence of his wife so deeply after his grown son left him for another city. Sometimes he would sit at the table to have breakfast and remember how he used to sit with his wife on the same table years ago and his heart watered.

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He was so often overwhelmed by nostalgia whenever he lay on the bed at night and remembered how she used to lay by his side. Her pictures on the wall of the living room brought tears to his eyes. She had gone too early. She was the one that brought back joy to his life after he lost his family and lived a troubled life. And that joy was cut short so early.