One year of love

          She was 30, he was 26. She held a master degree, was active in church and youth fellowship, he never completed class XII, was an ex-junkie turning to alcohol and a bit anti-social. I consider her my best friend, he was not the kind we normally associate with. They met in her workplace, where he was employed on a temporary basis. I've never known her to be so crazy about anyone before, but she somehow found it in her to fall in love, truly, madly, deeply in love, with this guy.

          As I too had really fallen in love once, I never had the heart to tell her she might be wrong in choosing this particular guy to fall in love with. Though he seemed all the wrong type for her, I knew in my heart that she might not be wrong. You never know with love.

         She did not want to be the first one to approach him, as she was of the old-school type, y'know. She suffered silently, while the guy seemed completely clueless (I could have bash his head in!). Though she confided in me and sought my advice time after time, I really didn't know  how to go about it too as she felt much too shy to confess her feelings to him. For two years, I watched her falling to pieces bit by bit. I knew she did not sleep much and eat much less.

         One day she came to my place after work and told me that she just had to tell him her feeling as she was slowly going crazy. So, we confided in one of his close friends, who was also a bit apprehensive about the possible outcome. He knew the guy for years, he knew he could not be the kind that could have a relationship with my friend. Nevertheless, she told him that it would ease her mind if only he knew that she loved him. 

         Well, his friend told him and the guy was, as expected, non-committal. He did not say yes, he did not say no, just that he was not ready for a steady relationship. Okay, that means "No" right? Or does it mean he was alright with a temporary relationship? Can't say.

          After this she hardly talked about him anymore, but I knew she suffered. She once even tried alcohol to ease the pain and to help her sleep at night. That was when the guy was having some kind of relationship with a much younger girl, who in her eyes was much more beautiful than her. But she never stopped loving him. It was hard for me to look into her eyes and see the pain. She often went alone to the nearby church in the evenings.  I accompanied her two or three times and to hear her pray to God, sometime to let her forget him, sometime to let her have him if only for a short time broke my heart.

          To make a long story short, let's just say that as time went by, God must have granted her prayers because, somehow, things turned out in a way that she and the guy were finally together. I've never seen her so happy, she was actually glowing! But as it turned out again, their time of togetherness lasted exactly one year. Her father didn't approve of him, told her in no certain terms that he would never be accepted in their family.

         Her world came crashing down on her once again. She was,like me, an only child and her mother had passed away some years back. As she lived alone with her father, who suffered from kidney failure, she couldn't take the risk of displeasing him as it might affect his already deteriorating health. The girl then decided that she had her one year of love, so it might be time to end the relationship. To make things easy for her, the guy at that time had reverted to his old ways of drinking himself silly and that was a good enough excuse. So she broke off with the guy. I know she still loved him, she said so herself. She actually mourned for him for almost three years. The guy often tried to reconnect with her, but as she told me,with her father now dead, who till his dying day remained adamantly against the guy, she just couldn't(or wouldn't,I wonder) go against her deceased father's will.

         She is married now and in another town and he too got married last year. Just the other day she called me, after chatting about this and that she asked me if I ever see him these days. Told her I hardly ever see him now and we went on talking about some other things. I know she loves him still then, but I did not say so to her. It's in the way she mentioned his name, I just hope she doesn't talk in her sleep!

          Maybe they'll meet again in another lifetime where they'll be happy together,forever.....