THIS new doctor at the hospital is good, really good,” said Aunt Susan as she hobbled over to my mother and gave her a hug. “You took your time visiting him didn’t you?” complained my mother. “Ah well! After he gave me my medicine I went and saw Carol!”
“Carol!” screamed my mother and I rushed into the room thinking the two sisters were squabbling, “Anything wrong?” I asked worried. “Your Aunt Susan visited Carol!” “Aunt Susan!” I exclaimed, “Is this an April Fool’s Day joke? You and Aunt Carol haven’t been speaking to each other for years, what made you do that today?”
“And after Carol,” continued my aunt glibly, thoroughly enjoying herself, “ I went over to the cemetery and gave the gardener money to water Uncle Victor’s grave!”
Now this was a bit too much; Uncle Victor had died an alcoholic, hitting the bottle before hitting on other women, then hitting his wife and it was rather a bitter Aunt Susan who saw him to his grave, grimacing through the funeral service, staring with bitterness at the fully suited body of her husband who was being laid to rest.
She had never visited his grave after that and was seen at other funerals rushing off, not venturing to even look in the direction of her buried husband. “Poor man!” said Aunt Susan with a far away look. “Poor man?” I asked incredulously, “I thought you hated your late husband?”
“Well I did son, I did, but believe you me after getting his grave attended to this morning I feel a lot better. My mother and I looked at each other and I noticed we both had the same puzzled expressions as we asked same question, “This doctor..”
“Ah yes,” said Aunt Susan, “I guess it has a lot to do with the medication this good doctor gave me!” “Was it some sedative?” asked my mother suspiciously as I nodded. “Do I look asleep dear?” “No,” admitted my mother, “You look anything but that, but this visiting your enemy Carol, then making peace with your dead husband is just not you!”
“May I have a look at the stuff this doctor gave you?” I asked gruffly as my aunt fished in her bag and handed me a small plastic container. “Forgive-em-mall!” I read out. “Yes,” said my Aunt Kamala, “he said to have one a day and my life would change, I’d get rid of stress and tension and feel a lot more peaceful, and it works, yes it does!” I visited the new doctor at the hospital, he looked anything like a doctor, “Here Bob,” he said as he gave me a bottle, “Take one, run along and watch it work!” I picked up the phone and called Jack who’d let me down on a deal, Rajeev who’d boxed me on the nose in school, Tom who’d thrown garbage on my car and many others, “Hey,” I shouted, “I forgive you, lets be friends again!”
There was a queue at the hospital next day; there was no doctor there, but a note on his door said, “Forgive-em-all available wherever you’re taught to forgive!” “Strange!”
I whispered happily as my aunt, mother and I sat in church and watched others getting their weekly dose of the medication, “Life sure has changed once you start on Forgive- em- all hasn’t it?” “It’s an absolute medical breakthrough..!” grinned my aunt as she winked at Aunt Carol across the aisle.
