Ellen sat back against the hard pillow and half-listened to her family talking.  She didn’t need to take part, it was enough that they were there by her hospital bed. 

      She had seen them all today; both of her children, their children, and an old friend who worked at the hospital had popped in.

      It seemed like an age since she had arrived with an illness that went only by the name of Old Age.  Old Age was a killer – quite literally.  There were just so many symptoms and no remedy at all.  She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten, her stomach had shrunk and it was enormously hard – indeed impossible to eat when one had no appetite.  A cup of sugary tea and a nibble of toast got her through the days now.

      Food didn’t matter now though, she had a plan to leave this hospital and somehow she knew that tonight would be the night she would put her plan into action.  With some help from her beloved Joe of course.

      “Elizabeth.”  She turned to her eldest daughter suddenly.  “Would you brush my hair for me?”

      “Of course.”  Elizabeth rooted around in her bag for a brush and using her experience as a nurse for the elderly she lifted Ellen forward in the correct manner and plumped up a pillow behind her tiny spine.

      There was silence for a little while, a companiable silence as Elizabeth brushed at her mother’s thinning hair with care.  Eventually she replaced the brush back in her bag and handed Ellen a compact mirror.

      “Okay?”  She asked as Ellen appraised her reflection.

      Ellen nodded, knowing she couldn’t really ask for a touch of blusher or lipstick, but when Joe arrived she wanted him to see her as she had been, young, beautiful, vibrant.

      Finally her family left.  One by one her grandchildren leaned over and kissed her cheek.  She lifted her arm with each child and held them close for a moment, inhaled, held the moment itself before releasing them, releasing each precious child. 

      Her daughters she held even longer, but not long enough to make them suspicious of her unusual sentimentality.  She watched them all leave in a group, watched them until she could see them no more and closing her eyes she leaned back against the pillow.

      “Mum?”  Ellen opened her eyes and saw Elizabeth standing over her.  “Mum shall I stay with you a while longer?”

      Ellen smiled, Elizabeth, always the more intuitive of her children, sensed something was amiss, of that she was sure.  Before she could summon the strength to reply Elizabeth was off, catching a nurse, talking quietly, gesturing towards Ellen.  The nurse looked over and nodded, and Elizabeth returned to her bed.

      “Go home Elizabeth.”  Said Ellen before her daughter could speak.  “I’m just tired, I’m going to sleep.” 

      “Are you sure?  The nurse said I could stay.”  Said Elizabeth, taking her mothers hand.

      Elizabeth’s daughter hovered in the background, petite and blond she moved around the bed, anxious to make her nana see they would stay for eternity if it helped her.

      “No, I’m tired; you’ve been here all day!”  Said Ellen, smiling through her casual tone although panic gnawed at her underneath.  Joe wouldn’t be able to come if they were there.

      Elizabeth hesitated, and then kissing Ellen once more she nodded.

      “See you tomorrow then.”  She said and Ellen gave a small wave as her daughter and granddaughter left the ward.

      Ellen sighed and settled herself in to wait for Joe.

      At midnight Ellen was on the verge of tears.  The ward was dark, even the nurses station was aglow only by lamplight.  The occupants of the five other beds were sleeping soundly, and still Joe had not arrived. 

      She had stayed in her original position since her family left, not wanting to risk falling asleep and messing up the hair that Elizabeth had so carefully brushed for her. 

      As she watched the digital clock on the wall move to 00:01 she let her tears fall.

     When she next opened her eyes her tears were crusty dry on her cheeks and the clock said 00:47.  A movement in the nurse’s station caught her eye and she moved her head over the pillow, expecting to see the nurse starting her checks.  If she did Ellen would ask her for a sleeping pill.

      But it wasn’t the nurse.  Indeed by the soft glow of the lamp light Ellen could see that the nurse’s station was empty.  Empty… except for the silhouette of a man who moved gracefully and elegantly towards the ward.

      Ellen pushed herself up into a sitting position, barely noticing the shooting arthritic pains that travelled down her arms into her gnarled fingers.

      She waited until he entered the ward until she whispered his name.

      “Joe?” 

      He smiled, more of a grin actually as suddenly his movements quickened and he was right beside her bed.

      “I didn’t think you were coming!”  Was all she could think of to say, and after so many years didn’t that sound just silly? 

      “I had to make sure you were ready Ellie.”  He said.  “Are you ready?”

      She took his hand and noticed how smooth it was.  Always a worker, but his hands didn’t betray that at this moment.  As she twisted her fingers around his she noticed with some amazement that her own fingers didn’t seem quite so gnarled anymore either.

      “I’m ready.”  She said and laughed a carefree titter at the tone of excitement in her voice.

      He grinned too and flashed a glance around the ward.

      Suddenly his smile faded and Ellen looked in the direction of where he was now frowning.

      Maggie.  Maggie O’Rourke in bed number two was wide awake and staring at them. 

      Oh don’t ruin it Maggie please, please don’t shout out and spoil my escape!  Ellen pleaded silently.

      Joe stood up, unlacing his fingers from Ellen’s and she called out, thinking that now they had been caught that he would leave, and morning would come and she would still be here, in this bed, in this ward, in this hospital, in this-

      Oh but wait, he wasn’t leaving, he had moved smoothly over to Maggie and it looked to Ellen in the dim light that they were conversing in quiet, serious tones.

      Maggie looked up and over directly at Ellen.

      “You go girl.”  She said, and Ellen was amazed to see tears standing in the corners of Maggie’s eyes, and an expression of… what on her face?  Could it be envy?

      Joe was moving back towards her, deftly closing the curtain around Ellen’s bed and before she knew it he had moved the sheet back, pulled her into a sitting position and was standing in front her of her, bending slightly to stare deep into her eyes.

      Words were not necessary now, there was nothing more to be said as he held his hand out and with no hesitation she reached out and gripped it hard.

      Across town Elizabeth awoke unable to breathe.  In the seconds that it took for her to fully wake up she struggled to breathe, pushing hard in her lungs, harder, harder, until with a whoosh her windpipe opened and she gasped out a breath.  Foggy with sleep she had no time to wonder what had happened before the phone rang shrilly, making her gasp again.

      “I’m the duty nurse on tonight, you should come down, Ellen’s going-“

      Elizabeth wasted no further time in listening.  Waking her husband she was ready to leave in minutes.

      “We couldn’t do anything, we couldn’t stop it.”  Said the nurse in soothing tones as she walked Elizabeth to Ellen’s bed. 

      Elizabeth stopped and opened the curtain.  She looked down and drank in the sight.  She looked younger, peaceful, hair all in place.  In death Ellen looked as she had wished to earlier; young, beautiful, vibrant.

      “It was quick.”  Said the nurse and put a hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder.  “You take all the time you need.”

      Maneuvering herself down the bottom of her bed Maggie O’Rourke held back the curtain that surrounded her bed and listened to the hushed conversation that was going on behind the now deceased Ellen’s curtain.

      A miracle had happened here tonight, a miracle that Maggie had been privy to.  Proof that the final journey wasn’t a lonely, frightening experience, but one full of joy, full of love!  Maggie let her curtain fall back and she sat back, swinging her feet over the side of the bed.  Today was a new day, she felt quite well, and she reveled in the knowledge that when it was her turn, someone that she had loved as deep and as hard as Ellen had loved her Joe would come to help her.

      She would tell Elizabeth, when she was ready to leave Ellen’s side, she would tell her about Joe and how kind he was and how exquisitely happy Ellen had been, so happy that the years had seemed to fall away from her.

       Lost in thought, she didn’t realise that she wasn’t alone until she felt the mattress shift beneath her and her daughter sat down beside her.

      “Holly?”  Maggie breathed in disbelief.

      Holly, her daughter who had died over thirty years ago, laid her hand over her mother’s and smiled.

      “Are you ready mum?  Are you sure you’re ready?”