“Ever since that day I have been feeling guilty, Stella.”
“But that helped him die in peace, didn’t it?”
“True, Diana. That night I prayed for a long time thanking God for his special gift to me while seeking his forgiveness for lying to one on the death-bed.”
Stella looked at me suddenly and realized that I was listening.
“Sorry if we’re disturbing you,” she said.
“It’s all right. I’m not feeling sleepy. Would you mind telling me about that incident you were just talking about?”
It was the story of a young man, critically injured in a road accident and admitted to their hospital. There were a couple of letters in his pocket, indicating that he was the resident of a remote village.
“Contacting his village was time-consuming. Remember, it was a time when many villages didn’t have a telephone. When he regained consciousness after a couple of days, he seemed to have a premonition of his death and the first thing he did was to ask us to write a letter to his friend in the village, asking him to take care of his aged mother. Luckily, he said, there was no financial problem but she had not been keeping good health for some time. There were no close relatives and he was confident that his friend would look after her. It was with great difficulty that he signed the letter before asking us to write the address from the letter in his pocket and post it.
“Soon afterwards his condition worsened and he became delirious. Whenever he became conscious, the only thing he asked was whether his friend had replied.
“It was obvious that he would die a miserable death if he did not receive that letter. And the possibility of the letter arriving on time was remote.
“It was then that I remembered Diana’s ability to copy other people’s handwriting. I rushed to her with the old letter from his friend and explained what was to be done.
“He was quite excited when I told him that his friend had replied. He held the letter in his trembling hand for some time before reading it silently, his emaciated face breaking into a broad smile.
“When I asked him if he was happy, he did not reply. His eyes were open and the smile was there on his face but he had stopped breathing.”