Man has been showered with blessings; he has been given a heart to live, a brain to think, and most importantly a shoulder to rely on. The shoulder holds the head of a beloved one during hardships. It is the source of solace, comfort and relief. However, life turns into a battlefield when he has no shoulder to cry on.
Hope Daniel, a fifty-year-old cancer warrior, suffered far beyond breast cancer. She was first diagnosed with stage two cancer during her early forties. Her husband passed away after being drafted for compulsory service in Iraq. Hope and her two twin daughters had a hard time moving on with their life. Eventually, the two girls traveled to London to pursue their education. Hope was left alone except for her girls’ once-in-a month visit. However, Hope was a fighter. She went through chemotherapy and had her tumor removed. Despite her recovery Hope felt as an outcast. So she befriended the pen. She wrote poems expressing the torture she was living through due to the lack of family relations. Her life, feelings and emotions were a wreck.
After Hope’s monthly scan, it turned out that her cancer was back. Her condition worsened to an extent that she had to be hospitalized. She had no one to confide to except for the regular attending nurse. Hope opened up to her; she told her about her life-long struggle with cancer and her battle for life. Nurse Angela was the only individual Hope had talked to for quite a while. Tears of torture, loneliness and grief filled Hope’s violet eyes. Angela also saw how reluctantly distant Hope was from her daughters. She realized that hope never had the guts to call her daughters, afraid that they might find out about her deteriorating condition. Instead, Nurse Angela made the call that changed Hope’s life for the best. Hope’s daughters came back to live with her and made their mother live the five most joyful years of her life.
Everyone reaches rock bottom some time in his/her life; only the wise finds the means to get up and move on with the help of others who care. After all, everyone needs a shoulder to cry on, not only in times of distress but also during times of joy.
