Stranger at the door

By JN
It was a splendid Sunday afternoon. Our closely-knit family gathered in the cosy living room to play board games. A few minutes into the game, the shrill ringing of the door bell interrupted our concentration.

“Yes,” my father, who had responded to the resonating doorbell, muttered to the other party.

The rest of us returned our attention to the game, thinking that it was the postman with a registered mail. As his conversation with the other party dragged on, he took on a severe semblance. His grave look indicated that something terribly wrong had occurred. At this point, the rest of the family rallied around him to await the disturbing news: our grandmother had met with an accident on her way to the market! Being unable to obtain our telephone number, a staff member of the hospital had come to our home to inform us about it.

Instantaneously, everyone clambered into the family sedan and my father whisked furiously towards the Singapore General Hospital. In the car, everyone was silent, stunned by the tragic news. Those twenty minutes of travel time were agonizingly long. It felt like hours before we finally swung into the driveway of the hospital.

Once there, my parent bolted out of the car at breakneck speed, with us sprinting behind. We knew we had no time to lose. Their mother, our grandmother, was dying! We smashed through visitors, nurses, patients, doors, and chairs to reach her hospital room. Tears of desperation and despair blinded us as we swept like a hurricane towards her bed.

“Grandma !Grandma!” I shouted in desperation, “Do not leave us!” I was like in a drama scene when actors would say this standard phrase to their loved ones when they were dying but this was no joke. My grandmother’s face was pale white and she did not even have the energy to smile. The nurse told us what had happened and said that it was not the driver’s fault. It was my grandmother who had crossed the road carelessly.

All we could do was to say some comforting words to my grandmother. We were all worried that grandmother’s condition would worsen. The doctor said that grandma had to stay in the hospital for at least a week to fully recovered. Although my grandmother finally recovered, this incident taught us that the grave consequences of crossing the road carelessly. Through this incident, we also learnt to cherish my grandmother more.